How do Thais celebrate the Year of China?

Where there are people from China, there is the Spring Festival. With the arrival of the Lunar New Year in China, Chinese people all over the world buy new year's goods and paste Spring Festival couplets to welcome the most important festival of the year.

Thailand has the largest number of overseas Chinese in the world except Chinese mainland. In Thailand, China Lunar New Year is also one of the most important festivals. Local Chinese and overseas Chinese have always maintained the traditional customs of the Spring Festival. Every year, both the people and the government will organize the Spring Festival activities with colored lights, which is not bad compared with domestic activities.

Thais also celebrate the Year of China.

There are many Chinese in Thailand, accounting for 12% of the national population.

As we all know, Thailand is a traditional Chinese immigrant country, with tens of millions of Chinese, accounting for about 12%- 14% of the national population. Among them, the largest number of Chinese come from Chaoshan, China. They are an important part of Thailand's national economy, playing an important role in commerce, finance, sugar production, transportation, textile and agricultural products processing, and are an important part of Thailand's multi-culture and nation.

The Spring Festival in China is regarded as a legal holiday for the first time.

65438+On February 29th, 2020, the Cabinet meeting of Thailand decided to increase legal holidays, among which the Lunar New Year in China was impressively listed, which was the first time in Thai history that the Spring Festival was listed as a national public holiday. China also welcomes this move very much, a Chinese and Thai family! A few days ago, Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand also wrote a New Year message in Chinese characters to express her good wishes, and explained in Thai that "I wish the business of 202 1 Year of the Ox to be prosperous and prosperous"!

Due to the large number of overseas Chinese, Thailand has always maintained the traditional customs of the Spring Festival. Except for some customs that are slightly different from those in China, there are all kinds of activities of eating, drinking and having fun. Let's see how everyone in Thailand spends the Spring Festival!

Thailand's Spring Festival custom

Sacrifice ancestors to eat New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Eve, China people in Thailand will get together to worship their ancestors and have a New Year's Eve dinner. In China, New Year's Eve is regarded as the most important activity, while in Thailand, ancestor worship is regarded as more important than New Year's Eve. Usually, people in China will prepare things for the day in advance. On New Year's Eve, they will put all kinds of sacrifices, incense burners and candles on the altar at home, worship and thank their ancestors for their inheritance and pray for health and safety in the coming year. After the worship ceremony, the family sat around to eat and chat to welcome the arrival of the New Year.

Give blessings on the first day of the new year.

Unlike visiting relatives and friends on New Year's Day in China, China people in Thailand are in no hurry to pay New Year's greetings on the first day. Instead, follow the Buddhist tradition and choose to give gifts to the temple, so that the Buddha can bless the good weather and family safety in the coming year. Just prepare a few simple foods or desserts and put them in a bowl held by a monk. This is the result of cultural blending. In addition to giving alms, it is also one of the indispensable customs to ask for a sign and seek money in the temple.

Leisure and entertainment festival atmosphere

Throughout the Spring Festival, many places in Thailand will hold grand celebrations, such as dragon and lion dances, lantern shows, float parades and firecrackers. Red lanterns are hung on both sides of the street, and various greetings are written on them in Chinese. People, whether from China or not, are immersed in the festive atmosphere, which makes people feel like they are in a China city at a certain moment.

Thai Spring Festival etiquette

During the Lunar New Year in China, various night markets with the theme of Spring Festival will be held all over Thailand, full of Thai characteristics and China flavor. Major shopping malls will also launch various commemorative activities, and all kinds of lanterns and Chinese knots are hung everywhere. Central Chidlom Shangtai Department Store cooperates with cutting-edge designer Gong Kan to integrate traditional dragons into the shopping mall and run through the whole first floor; EM business district is covered with colorful lanterns outside the shopping center, which is very China-like, and it is one of the shopping punch points that Thais must go to during the Spring Festival.

Cheongsam Tang suit China clothes

If you go to Chinatown on New Year's Eve, you will find that Chinatown has become a red sea. Many people wear red Tang suits and cheongsam and shuttle between red billboards to welcome the New Year. Not only that, when you turn on the TV, you can also see the news program host wearing cheongsam in Tang suit. The joy and atmosphere of the Spring Festival are everywhere. Many TV stations also organize artists to shoot Chinese calendars, which are also very popular among Thais.