Two New Years

In Thailand, the official calendar is the Thai solar calendar. The months, and since 1941, the new year, fall on the same dates as the Gregorian Calendar. The difference is that the years are numbered according to the Buddhist Era, 543 years ahead of the Common Era. In everyday life, both 2017 and 2560 are acceptable ways to write this year. The traditional Thai new year is Songkran in April, but the new year on January 1 is now also celebrated. Because of the sizable population of Chinese descent and proximity to China, the Chinese New Year is also an important holiday. This year, it fell on January 28.

Because of the directive that celebrations be toned down in honor of the late king, neither the official New Year nor Chinese New Year were celebrated as usual this year.

My family went to the Central World mall for the countdown, usually the most popular celebration in Bangkok. The entire area in front of the mall is filled with food vendors and winter-themed decorations.

Usually, popular Thai musicians play. This year, there were a few singers, but from about 10:00 until the countdown, entertainment was provided by the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. They played some classical music and some of the King's jazz compositions.

Near the time of the countdown, candles were passed out to everyone in attendance. We were standing near a fenced in area containing a large light rig that seemed to be only visible from above. A few people had been let in and were directed to stand in a particular area.

When we lit the candles, monks chanted for about five minutes. Then, live drone footage of the area was broadcast onto the big screen while a recorded message played.

The heart on the left is formed of people holding candles, while the one on the right is the lighting rig viewed from above.

The traditional fireworks were foregone and most people left pretty quickly after that. Some of the more tourist oriented celebrations were allowed to be more festive - we could actually hear the bass from a hotel bar several storeys up in the next building over - but I think the pictures here convey the mood of the main celebration pretty well. It was calm, suave, and visually beautiful, but intentionally low on excitement.

At the end of the month, Chinese New Year Celebrations in Chinatown were cancelled entirely. Instead, the tourism agency hosted a Thailand Tourism Expo in Lumphini Park, one of the larger parks in Bangkok. The Expo was separated into zones for each main region of Thailand, the tourism agency, outdoor tourism, the geological agency and fossil tourism, a main stage, and one small area for the Chinese New Year.

Lumphini Park

The Northern Thailand traditional crafts and cultural performance area

The Northeastern stage - human puppet performance

A Chinese acrobatic team on the main stage. The headliners included famous Thai pop acts every night preceded by variety shows from China and Thai cultural exhibitions.

The geological zone

The Chinese New Year section itself featured a few Chinese foods, quiet dragon dances and a few dragons simply on display without performers, and was built into a section of the park featuring a permanent Chinese-style structure. Around midday, a New Years parade also went around the whole park, but again, more quietly than is traditional, using just a few gongs and drums instead of a whole ensemble and fireworks.

And that was my experience with two of the three new years in Thailand. I'll try to write my Songkran post closer to the time of the actual event when that comes around. My host family says we're going to Khaosan Road in Bangkok, so it will be interesting to see how the biggest Songkran celebration for tourists gets toned down.