Chinese New Year celebrations in Thailand

BANGKOK, January 22 (TNA) - Thais of Chinese origin Sunday celebrated the Chinese New Year by paying respects and offered food to their deceased ancestors and to gods actively throughout Thailand. Large crowds of celebrants are seen in several key tourism destinations in the country. Many people paid respects to Jao Mae Malika Monument in Mae Ai district in the northern capital of Chiang Mai after succeeding in occupation or gaining a fortune on the eve of the Chinese New Year which falls on Monday. At area around Pak Nam Poh market in Nakhon Sawan province, people installed offerings to gods in front of their residence and prayed for living happily this year after encountering severe flood in their province late last year. Many people made prayers near the dyke at the Chao Phraya River. In nearby Phitsanulok province, people crowded the Chinese temple in Muang district and made worships and prayed to the god that the country safe from every kind of natural disaster. They also prayed that their businesses prospered throughout this Year of the Dragon. More than 10,000 people in the southern province of Trang and nearby provinces dressed in white and offered alms to 10,000 Buddhist monks who came from all the 14 provinces in the South. The offerings will be later distributed to monks in the four violence-plagued southern provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla of which many of them were unable to travel and receive the alms due to the continued unrest. In the southern district of Hat Yai, many Thais and Malaysian tourists traveled to several Chinese temples and paid respects to gods. Most shops opened earlier to welcome the tourists. A similar scene also took place in Pangnga resort province. The number of tourists rose three folds from last year while hotel rooms have been fully booked until early next month. The Thai Hotels Association of Southern branch has forecast that about 500 million baht would circulate in the market during the Chinese New Year. (TNA)