5 Awesome Thailand Festivals You Should Know About!

Thailand loves a festival, and it’s not surprising when you consider having fun and socialising is very important to Thai culture along with eating spicy food. There are many festivals taking place all over Thailand and they are always a pleasant experience.

The first festival is Water Festival (Songkran), This is the biggest and most fun festival in Thailand and maybe the world! Songkran is a three-day water fight throughout the whole country in April.

Glimpse from the last year's event.

Wild scenes with music, dancing, drinking and people drenched. Water guns, hose pipes, buckets – in fact, anything you can get your hands on can be used to splash people.

The second is Ghost Festival (Phi Ta Khon), this festival combines the religious traditions, local handcrafts and fun loving party. Phi Ta Khon is a three-day festival that’s known for the colourful masks worn by thousands of people. The masks are ghastly, stretched faces with phallic noses, decorated in bright, gaudy colours. The origin of the festival is a mixture of animist and Buddhist beliefs. It is supposed to recreate the legend of when a party was thrown that was so fun.

Glimpse from last year's event.

The Ghost Festival is held on the weekend of the 6th full moon of the lunar calendar. It usually has the main parade on the Friday (dressing up as a ghost optional), with pageants and music on the Saturday and Buddhist ceremonies on the Sunday.

The third is Lantern Festival (Yi Peng) Chiang Mai’s lantern festival takes place every November and is truly amazing. Down by the banks of the Peng River, thousands of paper lanterns are released into the sky to float away on the evening breeze.

Glipmse from last year's event.

It’s a more respectable event than the other festivals, but is a great opportunity for snapping some spectacular photos. Releasing lanterns is the most photogenic part of the festival, but there are also parades, religious ceremonies, fireworks and the releasing of paper floats in the river.

The forth is Rocket Festival (Boon Bang Fai), rocket festivals are important events attended by entire villages as they’re considered the last big ‘knees-up’ before the planting season begins. It starts in june or july.

Glimpse from last year's event.

The rockets are meant to encourage the gods to send plentiful rains to help the precious rice crops grow, with teams building ever more elaborate rockets. They are paraded around on the first day of the festival before being launched high into the air throughout the weekend.

The fifth festival is Buffalo Racing Festival (Wing Kwai), Buffalo racing, and the festivities that go on afterwards, make this one of Thailand’s best festivals. This tradition has been taking place for well over 100 years and now brings in the crowd.

Glimpse from last year's event.

Thais and foreigners from far and wide. The race course is around 100 metres long, located right in front of Chonburi City Hall. Crowds line the race course and cheer on the jockeys, who ride bareback on their trusty beasts. It is amazing to see how fast the massive beasts can actually run!