Page 66 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Bangkok

64 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Festivals

Songkran
Visakha Puja
1 4
Citywide • May
Citywide • Mid–Apr
The holiest day of the Buddhist Thai New Year is the country’s most
calendar commemorates the Buddha’s chaotic and raucous festival. People
birth, enlightenment, and death. throw water over each other as a
Occurring on the day of the full-moon, symbolic form of cleansing to usher
the evening candlelit pro ces sion in the new year, and passers-by are
around the temple is notable, es pe- not spared. Perhaps for its novelty
cial ly at Wat Benjamabophit (p44). value, this festival is particularly
popular among foreign visitors.
Royal Ploughing
5
Ceremony
Sanam Luang • Early May
This annual event is designed to
give an auspicious start to the new
planting season. Sacred white oxen
are used to plough a ritual field in
Sanam Luang (see p69) near the
Grand Palace (see pp12–13), which is
then sown with rice seeds blessed by
Revellers seeing in Chinese New Year the king. Farmers rush to collect the
seeds to plant in their own fields.
Chinese New Year
2 International Festival
Chinatown • Jan or Feb
of Dance and Music
This week-long Thai-Chinese 6
celebration has lion dances in the Thailand Cultural Centre • Sep & Oct
street, lots of loud firecrackers, and Since 1999, Bangkok’s premier
colorful activities in temples. international arts festival has been
held at the Thailand Cultural Centre
Makha Puja
3 (see p50) in September and October
each year. It features acts from
Citywide • Feb or Mar
This annual Buddhist festival, held at around the world, along with some
the full moon, cele brates the Buddha’s of Thailand’s best performers. The
first sermon to 1,250 disciples, focus of the festival is mainly on
starting the dissemina tion opera, ballet, and classical
of the dhamma. music, though jazz and
modern dance are
Monks observing represented as well.
Makha Puja at Wat
Phra Dhammakaya

Eyewitness Travel – Top 10 series LAYERS PRINTED:
Two-column, 8.5pt grid “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v.1.9)
064-065_Top_10_Bangkok.indd 64 22/05/2017 12:13
Date 24th June 2015
Size 100mm x 191mm