Chinese New Year 2012

Chinese New Year is the most important event of the Chinese holidays. The festival traditionally begins on the first lunar month, typically falling in late January or February. As there is a sizeable Chinese population living in Thailand, as well as many Thais of Chinese descent, Chinese New Year is a popular celebration in the kingdom.

Chinese New Year is a lively celebration in Thailand, with dragon dances, fireworks, and banquets prepared on the streets for the streets for the benefit of ancestral spirits particularly in Samphanthawong District, the largest China Town in Thailand. Well-known for its streets of goldsmiths and numerous restaurants serving tasty Chinese cuisine, Bangkok’s Chinatown Yaowarat is filled with people who still preserve a distinctly Chinese way of life, including both tradition and culture. That’s why the Chinese New Year celebration in this area is the major festival and well organized every year.

In China Town and elsewhere throughout the kingdom, lion and dragon dances are performed to ward off evil spirits, martial arts demonstrations are staged at various venues, Chinese street operas are staged along major thoroughfares and finally, fireworks are lit to mark the end of the New Year’s celebration.