In Thailand the New Year happens three times per year.
What if I told you that I live in a place where the year is 2553? No, I am not crazy, I did not allow my fantasies to go wild, and I do not live on another planet. But I do live in Thailand, and the year is 2553 for the simple reason that they use the Buddhist calendar instead of the Christian one.
Our western calendar starts at the birth of Jesus, 2010 years ago. Not surprisingly, the Buddhist calendar begins at the time when Buddha was born, 2553 years ago. Most dates in Thailand are written using the Buddhist year which tends to get quite confusing for westerners. Buddha was born 543 years before Jesus, so if you add this number to the year 2010 you will arrive at 2553 of the Buddhist calendar.
The celebration for the Buddhist New Year takes place in mid-April, the hottest and dryest season of the year. This New Year’s celebration is mostly a water throwing event where everyone comes out and soaks whoever is in range with plenty of water. Where I live, in Chiang Mai, the water throwing goes on for a solid seven days.
Although the Thais celebrate their New Year in April, they start counting it as of January 1. To confuse things even more, written dates in Thailand frequently combine the days and months of the Christian calendar with the Buddhist year.
The actual Buddhist calendar is quite complex and is mostly used to calculate dates for religious events and large festivals. The calendar is more of a timing tool for calculating the ideal dates for crucial events or decisions in life rather than a time keeping system. So this calendar is more than a way to keep track of time. The younger generation is not so familiar with the Buddhist calendar anymore. It is usually the older people and scholarly monks who are still familiar with it.
Believe it or not, there is a third New Year in Thailand, and that is celebrated by the six million Chinese that are part of the ethnic mix here. They have their own calendar again and their own colorful and noisy New Year’s celebration in late January or early February. You can always tell a Chinese celebration by what I call “machine gun firecrackers”. These are small firecrackers strung up one after another, and they explode in rapid-fire fashion. Another unique Chinese tradition is the lion dance where two men slip into the same colorful costume and together perform sometimes incredibly acrobatic dances that truly look like a gigantic animal is moving about.
The Thais recognize of course that most international business is based on the Gregorian Christian calendar. They are familiar with both systems, and January 1 is a public holiday here as well and is celebrated just like in the west with countdown and big fireworks.
In Thailand any excuse is good enough for a party, and the Thais have an impressive collection of them: Flower festivals, food festivals, New Year (all three of them), Buddha days, temple festivals, the king’s birthday and quite a few more. Some festivals last several days and include huge parades, lavish festivities with spectacular floats, colorful parades, performances of singing, dancing, and of course feasting. Festival dates change every year since most of them are calculated with the Buddhist calendar.
Now it is 2010 in Thailand and it is also 2553. And yes, we have three New Year’s celebrations every year, and if you are confused about what date it is on which calendar, don’t worry about it and just join the party! The Thais have a saying that expresses the Thai view of life: “maipenrai” - meaning “don’t worry”, “it doesn’t matter”, “no big deal”, “it’s okay”, “forget about it”, “let it go”. This is a useful word to know when you visit Thailand since it reflects the Thai attitude about life beautifully.
I give you some examples how to use it: “January 1 New Year is not really part of our tradition, but maipenrai, it’s a great opportunity to have a fantastic party, so let’s celebrate it”. Or: “Christmas has nothing to do with Buddhism, but maipenrai, it’s another reason to have a party, so let’s celebrate it anyway”.
It would never occur to the Thais to argue that Christmas is a non-Buddhist affair and therefore has no place here, or that there might be a conflict with the Buddhist religion. Now can you imagine the USA or any western country putting on a national festival for a Buddhist holiday just for the fun of it? Not likely! One of the likable qualities of the Thais is their tolerant and non judgmental attitude about other religions. Thais are fun loving people, and there is always one festival or another happening wherever you are. This is one of many attractive aspects of living in this beautiful country.