Thailand Festivals, Month by Month

Chinese New Year falls in late January or February, on 6 February in 2027, and Bangkok's Chinatown on Yaowarat Road celebrates hardest, with red lanterns, lion dances and food stalls, as do Chinese communities across the country. In Chiang Mai, the Flower Festival fills the first weekend of February with flower-covered floats, a parade from Nawarat Bridge to Suan Buak Hat park and the crowning of the Flower Festival Queen, at the start of the city's best weather.

Makha Bucha, on 21 February in 2027, is the first of the year's Buddhist holy days, when Thais walk candlelit circles around temples in the evening. Around Valentine's Day, couples dive to the seabed off the Trang islands for Trang's underwater wedding, and on a Saturday in March set by the lunar calendar, thousands of devotees come to Wat Bang Phra, west of Bangkok, to have their sak yant tattoos re-blessed at the Wai Khru festival.

Songkran, the Thai New Year, runs from 13 to 15 April every year, the hottest week of the year. Its quiet side is pouring scented water over Buddha images and elders' hands for blessing. Its loud side is a country-wide water fight with buckets, hoses and water guns, wildest in Chiang Mai around the Old City moat and in Bangkok on Silom and Khao San roads. You will get soaked, so seal your phone.

In May the Royal Ploughing Ceremony in Bangkok marks the start of the rice season, and Isan holds Bun Bang Fai, the rocket festival, to call the rains, with homemade rockets fired from launch racks, parades of floats and dancers, biggest in Yasothon on the third weekend of May. Visakha Bucha, which marks the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death, falls on 20 May in 2027. Sometime between March and July, on three days chosen by the town's mediums, the small Loei town of Dan Sai holds Phi Ta Khon, a riotous procession of ghosts in masks made from palm-stem sheaths topped with sticky-rice baskets.

October opens with the Vegetarian Festival, nine days set by the lunar calendar and biggest in Phuket, where devotees of the Chinese shrines give up meat and processions of entranced spirit mediums pierce their cheeks with skewers, swords and stranger things. It ran from 10 to 18 October in 2026, centered on Phuket Town's Jui Tui Shrine. Chonburi races water buffalo down a track by the town hall in October, and Ok Phansa ends Buddhist Lent on the October full moon, 15 October in 2027, with boat races and illuminated boats on the rivers and, on the Mekong in Nong Khai, the naga fireballs.

November is the peak. Loy Krathong, on the full moon of the twelfth lunar month (24 November in 2026), is when Thais float krathongs, small candlelit baskets of banana leaves and flowers, on rivers and lakes to thank the water goddess, and Sukhothai's ruins and Bangkok's Chao Phraya are the classic places to see it. Chiang Mai celebrates the same nights as Yi Peng, with lanterns hung across the Old City and the moat lit by candles. The same month brings the Surin Elephant Round-up on the third weekend, with elephant parades and shows, and Lopburi's Monkey Buffet on the last Sunday, a banquet of fruit laid out for the town's macaques, now mainly at the monkey shelter since most of them were moved off the streets around the Phra Prang Sam Yot temple.

December brings Wonderfruit, a five-day festival of music, art and talks at Siam Country Club near Pattaya (3–7 December in 2026), and the year ends with New Year's Eve countdowns and fireworks along Bangkok's river and outside its big malls.

Five Buddhist holy days fall on full moons through the year, Makha Bucha, Visakha Bucha, Asalha Bucha, Khao Phansa and Ok Phansa. They're public holidays, and on each one Thais make merit at the temples in the morning and walk candlelit circles around the main hall in the evening, which visitors are welcome to join if they dress respectfully.

They're also dry days. Shops, supermarkets and ordinary restaurants can't sell alcohol, though hotels and licensed venues in designated entertainment zones are exempt. Plan a night out around them.

The famous festivals fill hotels and transport. For Songkran, Yi Peng and New Year, prices can triple and the best rooms sell out months ahead, and trains, flights and vans out of Bangkok are full on the days before Songkran as Thais head home. Book as soon as the dates are confirmed, and for lunar festivals check the year's date first, because blogs often repeat last year's.

For the smaller festivals, the challenge is the reverse. Phi Ta Khon, the rocket festival and the elephant round-up are in provincial towns with limited rooms and programs announced late, so check the province's announcement, book early and expect simple guesthouses rather than resorts.