Thailand's Festivals and Celebrations: The Year's Calendar, Month by Month

In Thailand, the year is not divided into months alone. It also follows the moon, the rice harvest, the rainy season and the rhythm of the monasteries. Water is poured at Songkran, little vessels of light are floated at Loy Krathong, masks are worn at Dan Sai, lanterns are lit in Chiang Mai. Each festival binds together a community, a landscape and a set of beliefs. This calendar presents the country's great celebrations month by month: what happens, where, at what time of year, and what is genuinely known about their origins. It rests on one simple rule: check the dates every year.

Before you set off: how the festive year is built

In Thailand, time is not reckoned in just one way. The official calendar is the solar calendar used in Europe, with one significant difference: years are counted according to the Buddhist Era. The year 2026 in our calendar thus corresponds to the year 2569. Yet most of the great religious festivals follow another rhythm altogether: that of the moon.

Buddhist festivals almost all fall on a full-moon day. Lunar months do not coincide with our months, so the date of these festivals changes every year: the same celebration may fall in February one year and in March the next. Other events depend on local decisions. In Dan Sai, in the north-east, it is the town's mediums who set the dates of the spirit festival each year. Others, finally, are recent events, created by a municipality or by the tourism authorities. These return on more or less fixed dates.

A third rhythm matters as much as the first two: that of the seasons. Broadly speaking, the cool season runs from November to February, the hot season from March to May and the rainy season from June to October. Many festivals are tied to rice and water. Thanks are given after the harvest, rain is summoned before sowing, and the end of the rains is greeted when the rivers run high. Keeping this cycle in mind helps make sense of a good part of the calendar.

A word about this guide

The festivals are presented month by month. For each one you will find a summary, followed by the location and the usual time of year. These periods are a guide only. For every lunar or locally fixed festival, the exact date must be checked each year. The best sources are the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the Ministry of Culture and the government's official portal, thailand.go.th.

Some origins are poorly understood or disputed. Where that is the case, we say so. A legend remains a legend, however beautiful. Lastly, this calendar gathers the major events, not every festival in the country: each province, each district and often each village has its own.

January to March: the cool season, between crafts, Chinese New Year and the full moon

The year begins in the most pleasant season. Temperatures drop, especially in the North, and the rice harvest is in. It is a time of fairs, parades and family celebrations.

January

The Bo Sang Umbrella Festival

Bo Sang is a craft village near Chiang Mai, known for its paper and fabric umbrellas, hand-painted with flowers, birds or colourful patterns. Every year the village celebrates this craftsmanship with parades, stalls, demonstrations of umbrella-making and competitions. It is a festival of craft rather than a religious one, and it shows how a local trade can become an emblem for an entire region.

• Where: Bo Sang village, San Kamphaeng district, east of Chiang Mai.
• When: usually a weekend in the second half of January.

Children's Day and Teachers' Day

Neither of these days is traditional in the old sense, but both matter a great deal in national life. On Children's Day, many institutions open their doors and organise activities for the young. Teachers' Day recalls the respect owed to the teacher in Thai society, a value found in many ceremonies.

• Where: throughout the country.
• When: Children's Day most often on the second Saturday of January; Teachers' Day on 16 January.

Chinese New Year

A significant part of Thailand's population has ancestors who came from southern China. Chinese New Year, which follows the Chinese calendar, is therefore a major festival in the country. Ancestors are honoured, offerings are made at shrines, streets are decked in red and gold, and crowds watch lion and dragon dances. Bangkok's Chinatown, around Yaowarat Road, is the heart of the festivities. The city of Nakhon Sawan, in the centre of the country, is known for its grand processions.

• Where: above all Yaowarat (Bangkok) and Nakhon Sawan, but also in every town with a Sino-Thai community.
• When: between late January and mid-February, depending on the year.

February

Makha Bucha

This is the first great Buddhist festival of the year. According to Buddhist tradition, it commemorates an assembly of disciples who came spontaneously to hear the Buddha, who is said to have then set out the essential principles of his teaching. In the evening, the faithful go to the temple and perform the wian thian: a procession of three circuits around the ubosot (the temple's ordination hall), candle, incense and flowers in hand. At night, these rings of small flames are the festival's most powerful image. It is a public holiday, calm and contemplative.

• Where: in every temple in the country.
• When: full moon of the 3rd lunar month, in February or March.

The Chiang Mai Flower Festival

At the end of the cool season, the gardens of the North are in full bloom. Chiang Mai then stages a parade of flower-decked floats, accompanied by music and costumes, along with floral exhibitions. This festival is recent and municipal. It fits the image the city cultivates: that of a northern capital, proud of its climate and its gardens.

• Where: central Chiang Mai.
• When: usually early February, over a weekend.

March

The Wai Khru at Wat Bang Phra

The expression wai khru means ‘to pay respect to the teacher’. At Wat Bang Phra, a monastery in Nakhon Pathom province, west of Bangkok, it refers to a very particular ceremony. People who bear sak yant, protective tattoos with sacred designs, come to pay homage to the master tattooists and to ‘recharge’ the power of their tattoos. According to the participants' beliefs, some fall into a trance and behave like the animal tattooed on their body. The ceremony draws thousands of devotees, and more and more photographers and onlookers.

• Where: Wat Bang Phra, Nakhon Pathom province.
• When: in February or March, on a date set each year by the monastery.

March also marks the start of the hot season. The festive calendar thins out a little, in anticipation of the great event of April.

April and May: the water New Year and the call for rain

April is the hottest month of the year. The rice fields lie empty, the harvest is over, and the country is waiting for the rains. It is in this context that the two great themes of the period must be understood: water that purifies and refreshes, then water that is summoned to make the rice grow.

April

Songkran, the traditional New Year

Songkran is Thailand's best-known festival, and doubtless the most important for families. The word comes from the Sanskrit saṅkrānti, meaning ‘passage’ or ‘transition’. According to UNESCO's description, Songkran refers to the annual passage of the sun into the constellation of Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. This moment marks the traditional start of the new year. It falls in mid-April, after the rice harvest: one agricultural year ends and another begins.

What happens at Songkran? First of all, people go home. Millions leave the big cities to rejoin their villages and families. Homage is paid to elders, to ancestors and to sacred images of the Buddha. The central gesture is the pouring of water. Scented water is poured gently over the hands of parents and grandparents, who give their blessing in return. Buddha statues are sprinkled. People go to the temple to make offerings to the monks.

For many visitors, Songkran mainly conjures up water fights. In the cities, notably in certain districts of Bangkok and in central Chiang Mai, the streets turn into vast playgrounds of water pistols, buckets and hosepipes. This joyful, spectacular side is very real, but it is only part of the festival. The heart of Songkran remains the bond between generations and respect for one's elders.

On 6 December 2023, UNESCO inscribed ‘Songkran in Thailand, traditional Thai New Year festival’ on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This list records living practices, such as festivals, craft skills or performing arts, that communities hand down. Since then, the tourism authorities have promoted the festival. In 2024, the TAT accordingly launched the ‘Maha Songkran World Water Festival’.

One point is worth knowing: Songkran does not belong to Thailand alone. Similar New Year festivals are celebrated at the same time in several neighbouring countries. Cambodia has also submitted its own New Year to UNESCO. The Thai Ministry of Culture responded that this move changes nothing about Songkran's status. It is a heritage partly shared across the region, which each country celebrates in its own way.

• Where: throughout the country. The liveliest celebrations take place in the big cities; the most family-centred, in the villages.
• When: 13 to 15 April. In some localities, the festivities continue for a few more days.

Poy Sang Long, the ordination of Shan novices

In Mae Hong Son province, near the Burmese border, lives a large Shan (or Tai Yai) community, a Tai-speaking people. At the start of the hot season, these families celebrate the entry of young boys into the monastery as novices. For a few days, before having their heads shaved and donning the robe, the children are dressed as princes: glittering costumes, make-up, flowered headdresses. They are carried on shoulders through the town. According to the most common interpretation, this splendour recalls Prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha, who renounced his princely life. It is the festival of a specific community, with its own traditions, and not merely a spectacle.

• Where: above all Mae Hong Son and other localities in the north-west where Shan communities live.
• When: usually late March or early April.

May

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony

This ceremony officially opens the rice-growing season. It takes place in Bangkok, on the great open ground of Sanam Luang, near the Grand Palace. It combines rites of Brahmanical origin, that is to say inherited from religious traditions that came from India, with Buddhist rites. An official cuts furrows with a plough drawn by sacred oxen. The oxen are then offered several foods and drinks: depending on what they choose, it is announced whether the year will be rainy and whether the harvests will be good. After the ceremony, many spectators gather up the scattered rice grains for luck. The date is set each year by the court astrologers.

• Where: Sanam Luang, Bangkok.
• When: in May, on a date set each year.

Bun Bang Fai, the Rocket Festival

In Isan, the country's north-east, people do not simply wait for the rain: they go and fetch it. For Bun Bang Fai, villages build large home-made rockets, the bang fai, and launch them skywards. The most widespread belief holds that these launches remind the celestial powers that it is time to send rain to the rice fields. The festival also features parades, music, dancing and a good measure of humour, sometimes very bawdy. The town of Yasothon is the most famous, but many localities in Isan hold their own festival. Here, religion, agriculture and popular celebration are closely intertwined.

• Where: Yasothon and many villages in Isan (the north-east).
• When: usually in May, before the first rains.

Visakha Bucha

This is the most important Buddhist festival of the year. It commemorates, on a single day, three events in the life of the Buddha: his birth, his Awakening and his death. As at Makha Bucha, the faithful go to the temple, listen to sermons, make offerings and in the evening perform the wian thian, the candlelit procession around the ordination hall. It is a public holiday.

• Where: in every temple in the country.
• When: full moon of the 6th lunar month, in May or June.

June to August: the spirits of Dan Sai and the onset of the rainy season

With the rains, the paddies fill and farm work resumes. The festive calendar becomes more religious and more inward-looking. July marks the monks' entry into their retreat. June, for its part, holds a festival unlike any other.

June

Bun Luang and Phi Ta Khon, in Dan Sai

Dan Sai is a small town in Loei province, in the hills of the north-east. Every year it celebrates a major religious festival called Bun Luang, also known as Bun Phawet. Its most spectacular part is called Phi Ta Khon. The word phi means spirits.

The festival lasts three days. According to the government source presenting the 2026 edition, it commemorates the Vessantara Jataka and honours Phra Upakut. The Vessantara Jataka is a very popular tale in Thailand: it recounts one of the Buddha's previous lives, that of Prince Vessantara, famed for his boundless generosity. Phra Upakut is a holy monk traditionally invoked to protect ceremonies.

The first day, called Wan Ruam, is the spirit festival proper. Residents parade disguised as spirits, with large colourful masks and costumes made of stitched-together fabric. They dance, make a din with little bells and tease passers-by. According to local tradition, these spirits recall those who are said to have accompanied Prince Vessantara's return to his city, so great was the joy. The following days are devoted to processions and to the reading of the Vessantara story at the temple.

What also makes Phi Ta Khon unique is its timing. The dates are fixed neither by the moon nor by the authorities: they are chosen each year by the town's mediums. Depending on the year, the festival can therefore fall anywhere between March and July. In 2026, it is announced for 20 to 22 June.

• Where: Dan Sai, Loei province. In 2026, the festivities take place at the Dan Sai district office and at Wat Phon Chai, the main temple.
• When: three days, usually in June or July, but sometimes earlier. In 2026, 20 to 22 June. The dates change every year.

July

Asanha Bucha and Khao Phansa

These two festivals follow one another. Asanha Bucha commemorates the Buddha's first sermon, the one with which, according to Buddhist tradition, he began to teach. The next day, Khao Phansa marks the monks' entry into the phansa, the rains retreat. For about three months they remain in their monastery and devote themselves more fully to study and meditation. In the past, this rule also spared monks from travelling during the season when roads were difficult and the fields under cultivation. It is the traditional time for young men to enter the monastery temporarily. The faithful offer the monks useful items for the retreat, and above all large candles, meant to light the monasteries throughout these three months.

• Where: in every temple in the country.
• When: full moon of the 8th lunar month and the following day, usually in July.

The Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival

The Khao Phansa candle offering has taken on a spectacular form in Ubon Ratchathani, a major city in Isan. Temples and neighbourhoods there make giant candles, carved in wax, depicting religious scenes, mythological creatures or episodes from the life of the Buddha. These sculptures then parade through the city on floats. A simple religious gesture, offering light to the monks, has thus become a collective art and a regional event.

• Where: Ubon Ratchathani.
• When: around Asanha Bucha and Khao Phansa, usually in July.

August

August is a quiet month for major festivals. It is the heart of the rainy season and of the monks' retreat. 12 August is a public holiday: the birthday of Queen Sirikit, mother of the present king, also celebrated as Mother's Day. We return to it in the final section, devoted to civic holidays.

September and October: ancestors, vegetarians and the end of the rains retreat

At the end of the rainy season, the rivers are full and the rice is growing. It is a period rich in festivals, turned towards the ancestors, water and the end of the monks' retreat.

September

Sat Duean Sip, the ancestors' festival of the South

The name means roughly ‘the festival of the 10th month’. In the south of the country, it is traditionally believed that at this time the souls of departed ancestors, and in particular those suffering in the afterlife, return for a while among the living. Families then prepare food offerings and special sweets, which they bring to the temple to transfer merit to their dead. In Nakhon Si Thammarat, a great historic city of the South, the festival is accompanied by a large fair and by processions of richly decorated offering trays.

• Where: above all Nakhon Si Thammarat and other southern provinces.
• When: 10th lunar month, usually in September or October.

Longboat races

When the rivers are at their highest, many towns hold races of long boats propelled by dozens of oarsmen. These races often pit village or temple teams against each other. They combine sporting competition, local pride and a religious dimension. Phichit, in the north-central part of the country, is one of the towns best known for these races, but other riverside provinces have theirs too.

• Where: Phichit and many other provinces crossed by rivers.
• When: usually from September to November, depending on the location.

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival

This festival is Chinese in origin. It is celebrated by Sino-Thai communities in honour of the Nine Emperor Gods, deities of Chinese Taoism. For nine days, participants dress in white, follow a strict vegetarian diet and abstain from certain pleasures in order to purify themselves. In Phuket, where a large community of Chinese origin settled over the course of history, the festival is particularly striking. Mediums in a trance parade through the streets, piercing their cheeks or undergoing other physical ordeals, amid exploding firecrackers. These scenes are spectacular and can shock. For the devotees, they carry religious meaning: the deities are believed to protect the mediums from pain.

• Where: above all Phuket, but also Bangkok (Chinatown) and other towns with a Sino-Thai community.
• When: 9th month of the Chinese calendar, usually late September or October.

October

Ok Phansa, the end of the rains retreat

Three months after Khao Phansa, the monks come out of their retreat. This is Ok Phansa. The faithful go to the temple, make offerings and celebrate the end of this period. Around this date many regional festivals take place, often linked to water and light. The best known are presented below.

• Where: in every temple in the country.
• When: full moon of the 11th lunar month, usually in October.

Chak Phra, the procession of Buddha images

The name means ‘pulling the Buddha’. In several southern provinces, and in particular in Surat Thani, Buddha images are placed on richly decorated floats or boats. The faithful then pull them through the town or along the river in a long procession. The festival is linked to Ok Phansa.

• Where: above all Surat Thani and other southern provinces.
• When: around Ok Phansa, usually in October.

Tak Bat Thewo, the offering to the monks descended from heaven

The tak bat is the offering of food made to monks every morning. Tak Bat Thewo is a solemn version of it. According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha is said to have ascended to heaven to teach his late mother during the rains retreat, before descending back to earth at the end of that period. To commemorate this descent, hundreds of monks file past the faithful, who offer them food. At some hilltop temples, the monks descend a long staircase, making the scene highly visual.

• Where: in many temples, notably in the provinces of Surat Thani and Uthai Thani.
• When: the day after Ok Phansa or in the days that follow.

The Naga fireballs, in Nong Khai

The Naga is a great mythical serpent, very present in water-related beliefs in Thailand and Laos. According to a local belief, at the time of Ok Phansa, luminous balls rise from the Mekong along the border with Laos. They are attributed to the Naga, who is thought to be celebrating the end of the monks' retreat in its own way. Crowds gather on the banks to watch them. The phenomenon is much debated. Some put forward natural explanations, others doubt a natural origin, and no explanation currently commands general agreement. For the faithful, the question is first and foremost a matter of belief.

• Where: the banks of the Mekong in Nong Khai province.
• When: around Ok Phansa, usually in October.

Lai Ruea Fai, the illuminated boats of Nakhon Phanom

The name means ‘floating fire boats’. In Nakhon Phanom, an Isan town facing Laos, large vessels are built and decorated with thousands of small lights. They are launched at night on the Mekong, where they form religious scenes or luminous patterns. The explanations given for this rite vary: an offering to the Buddha, to the Naga or to the water spirits, depending on the account. The festival clearly shows the importance of the river in the life and imagination of this region.

• Where: Nakhon Phanom, on the banks of the Mekong.
• When: around Ok Phansa, usually in October.

The Chonburi Buffalo Races

In Chonburi, east of Bangkok, the end of the rains retreat is also the occasion for an agricultural festival. Farmers bring their water buffalo, animals once essential for ploughing the paddies, and race them. The festival also includes beauty contests and parades. It recalls a time when the buffalo was at the centre of rural life, before the arrival of machines.

• Where: the town of Chonburi.
• When: around Ok Phansa, usually in October.

Kathin, the offering of robes to the monks

In the month following the end of the rains retreat, the faithful organise the kathin: they offer the monks new robes and other items the monastery needs. Each temple may receive only one kathin a year. Families, villages, companies or associations organise themselves for it, often with a joyful procession and music. For the faithful, it is an important opportunity to make merit, that is to say to perform good deeds that count for this life and those to come.

• Where: in every temple in the country.
• When: during the month following Ok Phansa, from October to November.

23 October is also a public holiday, dedicated to the memory of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). We return to it below.

November and December: lights on the water, elephants and heritage on stage

The rainy season comes to an end and the air grows cooler. The rivers and canals are still full. It is the time of Loy Krathong, the most poetic festival of the year, and of Yi Peng in the North.

November

Loy Krathong, the festival of small vessels of light

The name (Loi Krathong in the official RTGS transcription) means ‘to float the krathong’. A krathong is a small ritual vessel, traditionally made from a section of banana trunk, decorated with folded leaves, flowers, a candle and incense sticks. On the night of the full moon, people set their krathong on a river, canal or lake and watch it drift away. Many see it as a gesture of thanks and of asking forgiveness of the water, so badly needed and so often polluted. Many also associate it with the goddess of the waters, Phra Mae Khongkha. For others, it is a chance to let go of their worries or to make a wish. Couples often float their krathong together.

Where does this festival come from? The popular answer is well known. According to tradition, Loy Krathong was born at the court of Sukhothai, the first great Thai kingdom, and the first krathong was created by a lady of the court, Nang Nopphamat. This is a legend. Scholars have shown that the story comes from a much later text, written at the beginning of the Bangkok period, in the 19th century. Indeed, in 1863 King Rama IV presented the festival as an ancient Brahmanical rite, of Indian origin, adapted by Buddhists. Some authors go further: in their view, nothing proves that the festival existed in Sukhothai itself, and it only took on its present national form after 1945, driven by the desire to celebrate a national culture and by tourism. These theses are debated. The essential point to retain is this: the exact origin of Loy Krathong remains uncertain. Rites linked to water and light are doubtless ancient throughout the region, but the Sukhothai story belongs to tradition, not to attested history.

What is certain, on the other hand, is the place the festival holds today. Loy Krathong has been officially recognised as national cultural heritage since 2011. On 27 March 2025, the Thai government approved a nomination of the festival for UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list, under the title ‘Loy Krathong tradition in Thailand’. At the time of writing, the outcome of this nomination has yet to be confirmed.

Loy Krathong is celebrated everywhere, in big cities and villages alike. Certain towns are renowned for their celebrations, among them Sukhothai, which hosts major festivities echoing the legend, Bangkok along the Chao Phraya River, and Chiang Mai, where the festival merges with Yi Peng.

• Where: throughout the country, on every river, canal and lake.
• When: full moon of the 12th lunar month, usually in November.

Yi Peng, the lantern festival of the North

In the North, around Chiang Mai, the same period is that of Yi Peng, a festival specific to the culture of Lanna, the former northern kingdom. It begins two days before the full moon of the 2nd month of the Lanna calendar, that is to say in November. It therefore coincides with Loy Krathong. Houses and temples are covered in light. People light phang prathip, small terracotta lamps, and hang paper lanterns on façades and in the streets. The faithful go to the temple to make offerings and perform acts of merit.

The most famous image of Yi Peng is that of the khom loi, paper sky lanterns that rise into the sky on the hot air of a small flame. Hundreds of lights then climb slowly into the night. This spectacular gesture draws many visitors every year.

• Where: Chiang Mai and the rest of the North (former Lanna).
• When: usually in November, over several days around the full moon, at the same time as Loy Krathong.

The Surin Elephant Round-up

In Surin province, in southern Isan, live the Kuy (or Kui) people, some of whose families have a long tradition of capturing and training elephants. Every year Surin holds a large gathering of elephants: parades, demonstrations, historical re-enactments. The festival highlights an ancient bond between a community and an animal. Today it also raises debated questions about the welfare of elephants used in shows.

• Where: the town of Surin.
• When: usually in November, over a weekend.

The Lopburi Monkey Banquet

Lopburi is an ancient town in the centre of the country, famous for the macaques that live among its ruins. Every year a vast buffet of fruit and vegetables is laid on for the monkeys, in front of the Khmer temple of Phra Prang Sam Yot. This is not an ancient tradition. It is a recent festival, created at the end of the 20th century to attract visitors. It shows clearly how a town can invent a new event out of what makes it distinctive.

• Where: Phra Prang Sam Yot, Lopburi.
• When: usually a Sunday in late November.

December

The River Kwai Bridge Festival

In Kanchanaburi, west of Bangkok, a bridge recalls the tragic history of the ‘Death Railway’. During the Second World War, the Japanese army had a railway built towards Burma by Allied prisoners of war and Asian labourers. Tens of thousands of them died there. Every year, around the bridge, the town holds a festival with sound-and-light shows evoking this period. It is an act of remembrance as much as a tourist event.

• Where: around the Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi.
• When: usually from late November to early December.

The Ayutthaya World Heritage Fair

Ayutthaya was the capital of the Siamese kingdom for more than four centuries, until its destruction in 1767. Its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Every December, the city celebrates this inscription with sound-and-light shows among the ruins, historical re-enactments and markets. As in Kanchanaburi, history here becomes a collective spectacle, revealing the site in a different light.

• Where: Ayutthaya Historical Park.
• When: usually in December, over about ten days.

The year ends with the solar New Year, on 31 December and 1 January, celebrated in the big cities with fireworks and gatherings, and in many temples with prayers to see in the new year.

Civic holidays, and what the calendar tells us about Thailand

Alongside religious and popular festivals, the Thai calendar includes public holidays linked to the nation's history and to the monarchy. They are less spectacular, but they too mark the rhythm of the year. The main ones are as follows:

• 6 April, Chakri Day: it commemorates the founding of the Chakri dynasty, which has reigned since Bangkok was founded as the capital.
• 12 August: birthday of Queen Sirikit, mother of the present king, also celebrated as Mother's Day.
• 23 October, Chulalongkorn Day: a tribute to King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), known for modernising the country at the end of the 19th century. On this day, many Thais lay flowers before his statues.
• 5 December: birthday of King Bhumibol (Rama IX), who reigned for seventy years. It is also Father's Day and National Day.

Unlike the lunar festivals, these dates are fixed. Other royal birthdays are added to the official calendar and may change from one reign to the next. It is best to consult the list of public holidays for the current year.

A living heritage, not a backdrop

At the end of this year, one idea stands out: Thai festivals are not frozen in time. They combine several layers. First there is Buddhism, with its full moons, its rains retreat and its offerings to monks. Then there are older or more local beliefs: the spirits of Dan Sai, the Naga of the Mekong, the rockets that call down the rain. There are also the contributions of the communities that have shaped the country, such as the Sino-Thais of Phuket and Yaowarat, the Shan of Mae Hong Son or the Kuy of Surin. Finally, there are the court rites, such as the Ploughing Ceremony.

Festivals also change over time. Some, like the Lopburi Monkey Banquet or the sound-and-light festivals, are recent creations. Others, very old in principle, took on a new form in the 20th century. That is what some studies of Loy Krathong suggest. The state and the tourism authorities play a growing role: they recognise festivals as national heritage, put them forward to UNESCO and turn them into international events. Songkran was inscribed in 2023; Loy Krathong is a candidate. This recognition helps to pass traditions on. It also makes them evolve, sometimes at the risk of favouring spectacle.

For the visitor, the best way to approach these festivals is probably the simplest: find out the exact dates, observe before taking part, and remember that behind the lights, the masks and the splashing water, there are families honouring their elders, devotees making merit, and communities that continue to keep their history alive.

Sources and further reading

1. UNESCO, Songkran in Thailand, traditional Thai New Year festival (élément 01719), UNESCO – Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2023.
2. Bernama, Unesco Recognises Songkran As Intangible Cultural Heritage Of Humanity, Bernama, 2023.
3. Khaosod English, Songkran's Soft Power Is Now a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Khaosod English, 2023.
4. Gouvernement thaïlandais, Status of Thailand's Songkran as UNESCO Heritage Not Affected by Cambodia's Submission of Its New Year to UNESCO, thailand.go.th.
5. Tourism Authority of Thailand, Celebrate 'Songkran in Thailand', The UNESCO 'intangible cultural heritage', Cision, 2024.
6. EBSCO, Songkran (Thailand) – Research Starters, EBSCO.
7. Bangkok Post, Unesco recognition sought for Loy Krathong, Bangkok Post, 2025.
8. Thai PBS World, Loy Krathong set for UNESCO heritage nomination, Thai PBS, 2025.
9. The Pattaya News, Thai Cabinet Approves Proposal to Nominate Loy Krathong Festival for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, The Pattaya News, 2025.
10. Thaiger, Thailand seeks UNESCO status for Loy Krathong festival, The Thaiger, 2025.
11. Contributeurs Wikipédia, Loy Krathong, Wikipedia.
12. Contributeurs Wikipédia, Yi Peng festival, Wikipedia.
13. Gouvernement thaïlandais, Bun Luang Festival and Phi Ta Khon Festival 2026, thailand.go.th, 2026.
14. Phi Ta Khon, Wikipedia (EN).