Bangkok Festivals
Thailand has many festivals, and civil and religious celebrations, that are beautiful symbolically and fascinating to witness and participate in. We recommend that you includeThai festivals or holiday in your travel plans. There are many Bangkok celebrations, that are well worth attending. Thai festivals are rarely solemn occasions, and few countries celebrate them with so much fun and color. Annual rites and festivities, marking religious devotion or the passage of seasons, have long been an integral part of Thai life.
The main celebrations for the nationwide festivals and events take place in Bangkok. Festivities for Songkran, Visakha Bucha, The Royal Plowing Ceremony, The Golden Mount Fair and King's birthday are staged in there. Festival dates can change from year to year as they follow the lunar calendar.
Bangkok Festivals -Bangkok International Film Festival
January
Welcome to film-makers from all over the world and international performing artists, especially from Hollywood. At the Bangkok International Film Festival not only will major studios and independent film enterprises premiere their films for Asia, but they will also attend the exhibition of "Location Thailand and Film Tech."
Here, marketing and business opportunities await those in the film industry competition.
Viewers will enjoy an exciting exhibition on spectacular poster will be available along with the seminars and conferences related to motion pictures.
Bangkok Festivals - Bangkok China Town Festival
February
Come to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the biggest China Town in Thailand, Yaowarat Road renowned as the Golden Road, the Land of Siamese Dragon. Watch the Beauty Pageant. Treasure the Chinese cultural demonstrations and experience choices of Chinese cuisine available at famous Chinese restaurants as well as fashion show depicting ancient Chinese attire in various regions. The goldsmith shops offer you beautiful souvenirs. Last but not least, Chinese movies will fascinate you.
Bangkok Festivals - Kite Festival
March
In March when the wind never fails to blow and the sky is clear and bright, people go to Sanam Luang, the main ground opposite the Grand Palace, to join or watch kite flying, an activity popular in this country since ancient times. A Thai kite fighting contest is held annually.
Bangkok Festivals - Songkran Festival
April
Among the many Thai festivals of the kingdom, the Songkran Festival or the Thai New Year has been regarded as the most important festival in Thailand . Due to its seemingly interminable traditional practice by all Thai people, the government has recognized its importance and has consistently promoted this festival by announcing the Songkran Festival, a three-day period. as a national public holiday. and as the Family Day. Thus, enabling Thai citizens to reunite with their families and have an opportunity to perform "merit making" at their respective temples. Moreover, those from different parts of the kingdom are motivated to retum home to celebrate this festival by performing ritual ceremonies with their families.
Bangkok Festivals - Royal Ploughing Ceremony
May
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony was probably, in the old times, the rite designed to remind the farmers and to give an auspicious beginning to the new planting season especially the rice farming that is the major source of food. The leader or the rulers of the country preside over the ceremony when the planting seasons begin. to remind the farmers and to give an auspicious beginning to the new planting season especially the rice farming that is the major source of food. The leader or the rulers of the country preside over the ceremony when the planting seasons begin.
Bangkok Festivals - Visaka Bucha Day
May
Celebrated on the full-moon day in May, Visaka Bucha Day is the holiest day of the Buddhist year, commemorating birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha. Don't miss the public and picturesque candlelit evening procession around Bangkok's Wat Benjamabophit.
Bangkok Festivals - International Festival of Dance and Music
June
Designed to position Bangkok as a cultural centre for world-class performing arts in Asia, the capital will be hosting the International Festival of Dance and Music for the eighth consecutive time this year.
Each year, the star-studded festival presents an impressive programme of world-class dance and musical performances bringing together the finest international artists and dancers from countries around the world like Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, and France, as well as celebrated Thai artists and performers, many of whom have gained international fame.
Bangkok Festivals - Loi Krathong Festival
November
The Loy Krathong festival is held every full moon night of November in the cool season with cloudless sky, when the full moon is supposed to be the most beautiful in the whole year.
The festival is held nationwide to honour the goddess of the river, to thank and apologise to her for the uses and abuses of the waterways by human. A symbolic boat , the krathong in the form of small bowl made of leaves or wax paper containing lighted candles, joss stick, flowers, and some coins, is set afloat in a body of water, preferrably a river. The token boat is mean to be the carrier of offerings to the river goddess. Th the same time, the boat is also supposed to bear away the owner's bad luck and misfortunes.
In Bangkok the event is held in grand-scale around the Rattanakosin Island, i.e. the Grand Palace and Sanam Luang area, and the nearby Khaosan Road.
Bangkok Festivals - Golden Mount Fair
November or December
Annually held 7 nights and 8 days (from the 11th day of the waxing moon of the 12th lunar month to the 3rd of the waning moon of the same month), the event's purpose is to worship the Buddha's relics enshrined in the Golden Mount in the compound of Saket Temple. It features folk plays, sales of foods and other products, and amusements.
