Thais nationwide celebrate New Year: Special report

[webfact]

Special Report: Thais nationwide celebrate New Year

BANGKOK: -- Thai people are having a five-day public holiday, from 31 December 2014 to 4 January 2015, on the occasion of the festive New Year celebration.

The long holidays during the New Year celebration are expected to help stimulate tourism growth in the country.

The Government has opened a new bicycle lane around Rattanakosin Island in the heart of Bangkok as a New Year gift for the people. The project aims to promote safe cycling, reduce air pollution, encourage people to bike for exercise, and boost the campaign for cultural and environmentally friendly tourism.

The project is expected to make the area around Rattanakosin Island more beautiful. Rattanakosin Island is truly the center of Bangkok’s precious historical heritage. Attractions in the area represent the long history of Bangkok as the capital city of Thailand.

The bicycle lane project around Rattanakosin Island is divided into two phases. The first phase, which kicked off in 2014, involves 12 routes covering a distance of eight kilometers. The second phase, to be carried out in 2015, covers five routes with a total length of 10 kilometers.

Like people elsewhere, Thais celebrate the New Year festival each year with many joyous activities. With the long holidays, many of them will have more time to travel and spend with their families. Apart from exchanging gifts and greeting cards, as part of the New Year celebration, Thais still maintain their style of traditional celebrations for the New Year, during which they usually visit their relatives, especially the elderly, to show gratitude and respect.

Because the New Year celebration is a period when a great number of people are on the road, the Government has each year launched a campaign on road safety during this period in order to reduce road accidents. Travelers have been urged to drive carefully for their own safety and the safety of others.

The New Year festive season is one of the best times for joyous activities in the midst of pleasant and cool weather in Thailand. For Buddhists, this is the season when many of them take the opportunity to make merit by giving alms to monks, releasing birds, fish, and other animals, donating cash and goods to the poor and the underprivileged, and visiting temples to pay respects to the Lord Buddha statues and the monks.

All over the world, people have widely different beliefs and customs related to the New Year. As a matter of fact, not all countries have their traditional New Year celebrations on the same day. Thailand, for example, celebrates her traditional Thai New Year on April 13th; the day is generally known throughout the world as Songkran.

Thailand adopted the Western New Year date of 1 January in 1941, during the reign of King Ananda Mahidol, Rama VIII. People in Thailand wish one another happiness on this special occasion.


-- NNT 2014-12-31

[Commerce]

So, is it 2559 now?

Edit: Or does that come in the other new year? I get a bit confused in my old age.

[Greenhill]

No! Tomorrow, the 1st January starts Thai year 2558! The Thai year changes on January 1st even though the actual Thai New Year is on 13/14th April (Songkran) - any reason you would be confused?????!!!!!! Hahahahaha

[siampolee]

It's the usual old antics, strong drink and fast women or is it fast drink and strong women with the result as shown below?

[DrTuner]

I wish the Thais would get annual leave which they could use any time they want. These synchronized mass migrations and prolonged public holidays are a nuisance.

[maidee]

i tought new years is in several hours

is this reporting from the crystal ball news agency ?

[Jonmarleesco]

The first of three.

[FangFerang]

Special report?

It starts out being about New Years and ends as a bicycle plug for the junta.

[Dah fahrang]

Special report?

It starts out being about New Years and ends as a bicycle plug for the junta.

My thoughts exactly.

"Special" Report....?

Suppose, though, in these times of enforced abscence of real news, or heavy censorship on those things which may be deemed newsworthy (or un-newsworthy, in the eyes of the junta) then we must show due gratitude for such trivia.