Thailand's vast Chinese community rings in the New Year with colourful dragon processions, lion dancing, local Chinese cultural performances and Chinese opera and fireworks. Savour quality grilled pork, Peking duck, noodles and desserts along Chinatown's Yaowarat and Charon Krung Roads.

Chinese New Year 2010 celebrations and festivities for the coming Lunar Year of the Tiger, will take place from 14 - 15 February 2010 and will be staged on Yaowarat Road from the Chalerm Phrakiat Gate to Lampoonchai and along several roads in the heart of Bangkok’s Chinatown (Samphanthawong district).

The opening ceremony of Chinese New Year 2010 celebrations at Yaowarat will be presided by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

The official route of parades and performances extends from Traimit Road, past Wat Traimit temple, with the world's largest solid gold Buddha image, China Town Gate (the King’s Birthday Celebration Arch; Chalermphrakiat Arch), Yaowarat Road to Ratchawong intersection.

But there will be performances in almost every road of China town, just follow the lion dancers or the performers of the dragon dance.

The traditional Thai New Year is an occasion for merriment all over the city, but most notably at Sanam Luang, near the Grand Palace, where the revered Phra Phuttha Sihing image is displayed and bathed by devotees.

In the Wisutkasat area, a Miss Songkran beauty contest is held and accompanied by merit-making and entertainment. Khao San Road, Bang Lamphu area is also one of the high-spots in the city where locals and tourists play water by the water-throwing activities.

An ancient Brahman ritual, conducted at Sanam Luang, in which farmers believe, is able to forecast the abundance of the next rice crop.

The event is a result of a series of ceremonies that are conducted by Phraya Raek Na, portrayed by a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives who wears colourful traditional costumes.

This ceremony was re-introduced in 1960 by H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej and is considered the official commencement of the rice-growing season.

The Thais treat their monarchs with great respect and the celebration of the Queen's Birthday is a major event in this nation that calls for great merriment and festivity. People decorate the streets and houses and a national holiday is declared.

The Ratchadamnern Avenue that lies between the Grand Palace and the parliament building is the main site for the festival. August 12th is not only celebrated as Queen Sirikit's birthday but also as National Mother's Day to honor the motherly benevolence that the queen has been bestowing on the common people.

Features of H.M. The Queen's Birthday Celebration:

• All public buildings are elaborately decorated with colored lights and other adornments.
• The buildings are also covered with National Flags.
• People indulge in charitable activities and also donate food to the monks.
• View the special lightings during this occasion.
• Portraits if the Queen are also hung and people pay their homage to her picture..
• The H.M. The Queen's Birthday festival is also celebrated in the remotest part of the country.

Since the day is also celebrated as National Mother's day, people also offer flowers and gifts to their mothers and also the women whom they respect.

To display their loyalty and to honour Her Majesty Queen Sirikit on the occasion of her royal birthday, the Thai people decorate their houses and public buildings. Around Bangkok, Ratchadamnoen Avenue, the area around the Grand Palace and other well-known locations are bedecked with coloured lights and magnificent adornments.

Loi Krathong is a way of saying thank you and apologize for what we've done to the river - it's all in honor of the mother of water, Mae Khongka, in attonement for a year of water pollution.

Its the first full moon of November that we celebrate Loi Krathong Festival.
Some locals will make their own "krathong", but you can buy one from one of the vendors. Fill your krathong with a candle, flowers, incense, and a coin. Sometimes, locals add a snip of their hair or fingernails to the krathong (so that a part of their bodies goes out to the goddess).

Their majesties the King and Queen preside over this impressive annual event, held in the Royal Plaza near the equestrian statue of King Chulalongkorn.

Dressed in colourful uniforms, amid much pomp and ceremony, members of the elite Royal Guards swear allegiance to the king and march past members of the royal family.

The 5th December is His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday.

 This public holiday is celebrated nationwide as Father's Day. The King is considered as the father of all Thai people

Starting a few weeks before the King's birthday, all buildings are covered up with Royal symbols and portraits of His Majesty all over the Thai kingdom.

Born in 1927, His Majesty the King has captured the hearts of the Thai people through his devotion to improving the welfare and well-being of his subjects.

Every year in December, huge portraits of His Majesty are raised in temples, administrative buildings, schools, houses, shops by individual people and organizations.

His H.M. the King Rama IX is highly recognised among Thai society because he always takes care about his people. Each year he used to go up-country to visit villages and towns to talk to people and to know their problems. He is not a King far away from his people. He has created many foundations and has done many projects to improve the life of his people. He was responsible of projects which helped hill tribes to replace their opium culture with substitution cultures.

On the 5th december early morning time, Thai Buddhist people go to temple and make offerings to monks as usual.

Each year in the evening of the 5th december, a free huge concert is organized in Sanam Luang, the area in front of Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok. It is a great honour for singers to be invited to play one song in the concert dedicated to the King. Some of them sing songs composed by the King himself. Every kind of Thai music is played such as Molam, Thai country music, pop, Disco Dance and also every kind of singers from very old one to teenagers in order to give satisfaction to the crowd.

In civil administrations, there are specific gatherings for the King's birthday. On this occasion, civil servants wear their most beautiful clothes. Then they listen to Buddhist sermons and to their director's speech.