Koh Samui Hotels Thailand Island Travel Guide and Festivals |
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 Chak
Phra Festival
Surat Thani celebrates the official end of the
annual 3-month Buddhist Rains Retreat (Ok Phansa)
in mid-October with the Chak Phra Festival (literally
'the procession of hauling the Buddha image’).
The tradition stems from the belief that the Buddha
ascended to Heaven during Phansa to preach to
his mother. The festival marks the Buddha's return
to Earth, and is an occasion for religious merit-making
and general celebrations. Local people organise
dazzling land and waterborne processions of revered
Buddha images (to symbolise the Buddha's return
to Earth) and boat races on the Tapi River where
long boats, manned by up to 50 oarsmen, are ebulliently
raced. Religious devotion, spectacle and merriment
combine to make Surat Thani's Chak Phra Festival
a memorable annual event. |
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Rambutan Fair
The annual August fair celebrates the delicious
fruit, first planted in Surat Thani during 1926.
Highlights include floats adorned with rambutans
and other fruits, exhibitions of local products
and ornamental plants, and demonstrations by specially
trained monkeys who harvest coconuts. |
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 Loykratong
Date : November 10
It is an impressive and fascinating festival
observed in all parts of the country on the full
moon night of the 12th lunar month, when the moon
is in its splendor and water in all rivers and
streams are full. It is intended primarily as
an act of atonement to Mother River. Small receptacles
made of banana leaves fashioned in the shape of
lotus containing incense and candles, flowers
and money are floated as a gesture of expiation.
In Bangkok the festival is celebrated along the
Chao Phraya River and canals. Hotels on the bank
of the river also hold special events. |
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 Songkran
Festival
Date : April 12-14
The traditional Thai New Year is an occasion
for merriment all over the city, but most notably
at Sanam Luang, near the Grand Palace, where the
revered Phra Phuttha Sihing image is displayed
and bathed by devotees. In the Wisutkasat area,
a Miss Songkran beauty contest is held and accompanied
by merit-making and entertainment. Khao San Road,
Bang Lamphu area is also one of the high-spots
in the city to experience the water-throwing activities
between locals and tourists. |
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