Monday, January 1, 2024
New Year’s Celebration in Chiang Mai, Thailand

You are probably wondering why the Thai greeting starts with 2567. The official year in Thailand is the Buddhist year, based on the death of the Buddha in 543 BC. So this works out to the Gregorian (international) year plus 543 years, or 2024 becomes 2567. The rest of the greeting says:

Happy New Year
May it be a good year, be lucky here, be healthy, sit happily, and be happy forever.

And, it will soon be the Year of the Dragon (after Chinese New Year on February 10), so it is appropriate that the Naga (dragon-like serpent) heads the greeting.

Recent New Year’s Celebrations

Prior to 2016, New Year’s Celebrations in Chiang Mai were quite large. Multiple stages were set up near Tha Phae Gate, bands played, large gatherings of people watched, danced, counted down the arrival of the new year, and then there were massive fireworks. It was exciting and fun, and I was there for a few of those celebrations. I came to realize that Asian countries celebrate the new year far more than we in the United States, larger even than we celebrate Independence Day.

On October 13, 2016, Thailand’s very much loved King Rama IX, Bhumibol Adulyadej, passed away at the age of 89. He was the ninth King of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty. Reigning from 1946 until his death in 2016, his reign of over 70 years is the longest reign of any Thai monarch and the longest native rule of any Asian sovereign. Thailand went into a period of mourning. At hotels and restaurants where the staff wore colored uniforms, like burgundy, blue, or other colors, the uniforms became black. It was not that everyone was somber or morose, but there was an air of sadness over the King’s passing and respect for his having been a very benevolent king.

For the 2016 New Year’s Eve, there was no celebration. There was no official celebration for the 2017 New Year’s Eve, and I saw a small number of people celebrating, mostly tourists. The next two years saw a small official stage and decorations for the countdown celebration, dramatically smaller than years prior to 2016. Then came the global pandemic and again everything stopped, just like everywhere. After Thailand started slowly opening its borders to tourism, initially with required PCR tests on arrival and again after 6 days, I came back for a shorter, 30-day visit. There was a very small stage and an official New Year countdown with some fireworks, very small in comparison to earlier years. Last year was a little bigger, and this year even bigger.

Decorations

The decorations have evolved. With the proliferation of social media and people wanting to share pictures of themselves, the decorations seem to be designed to facilitate that. In a country where about 95% of the people are Buddhist, the spread of the Christmas celebration is a curiosity. The aspect of Christmas that Thai people have embraced is the family celebration and gift-giving. So there are Merry Christmas signs here and there, and Christmas trees in various places. At Tha Phae Gate, where the decorations are centered, there is a large, colorful Christmas tree that changes colors and is continually the backdrop for photos.

There is also a large Happy New Year sign, also the backdrop for many photos.

And just to prove that I was there I asked a man to take my photo (much better than my selfie attempts).

Many decorations around Tha Phae Gate, including this 2024 sign that was blocked off and turned off until the official New Year’s Eve countdown.

In the triangle-shaped median across from Tha Phae Gate square, there are these flowers, a mixture of real plants and electronic flowers for photos.

And looking down Tha Phae Road, the purple bells in the middle of the archways were added since I took a photo at Loy Kratong.

I was at the Tha Phae Gate celebration relatively early, just before 8 PM. The celebration was going strong. Here is a photo of the stage with a teenage band playing (they were quite good). Notice (easy for me, since it is so familiar) the depiction of the Tha Phae Gate and wall in the stage background screens.

The lady in the bright green on the left and the man in the suit to the right are the masters of ceremonies. After staying and watching the performances and the growing crowd, I left to walk down to the Iron Bridge. Last year, there were so many people on the Iron Bridge that vehicles could not get through. The Iron Bridge was a good place to see the unofficial fireworks being shot off at the Nawarat Bridge about 500 meters upriver (and there were a LOT of those fireworks). This year, however, there were almost no people at all at the Iron Bridge. I walked across and noticed that the Tourism Authority of Thailand office was nicely decorated with bright, festive lights:

The Iron Bridge itself is decorated. The best view would be from a boat in the river which I don’t have handy, so I got these shots.

And a closer view of the colorful depictions of the lanterns seen decorating many places (including inside the roadway of the bridge).

Suan Dok Gate

Several days ago, while walking back from Nimmanhaeman I walked into the old city at Suan Dok Gate. This is also decorated, saying phonetically “sawad dee bpee mai” or essentially “Happy New Year.”

In Thai, “sawad dee” is “hello” used where we in the U.S. would say good morning. “Mai” is “new” and “bpee” (pronounced like “bee”) is “year,” so directly translated, “sawad dee bpee mai” is really saying “hello new year.” I mentioned this to some Thai people, and they had to think about it, and then agreed. They say it meaning Happy New Year, not considering the actual translation of the words.

Whereas in English, the structure is adjective + noun, in Thai the structure is reversed so it is noun + adjective. So “New Year” in English, is said “Year New” in Thai. This also works for why in Thai and as far as I have learned, in most Asian languages, there are no plurals. In English, we say 1 cat or 4 cats, changing the word when there are more than one. In Thai, they say, cat 1 or cat 4, so no need to change the word. And thus their confusion over plurals when learning English.

At midnight, the official fireworks were shot off. I was in my room and close to being asleep. The fireworks were very loud, and I could see a few in the sky from my window. The new year has started in Thailand, and in fifteen hours, on the Pacific Coast of the United States.

Next: Hiking with the Chiang Mai Hiking Club