Thailand festivals: the calendar and where to be

Thailand has a large Thai-Chinese community, and Chinese New Year turns Yaowarat Road in Bangkok into a sea of red: lion and dragon dances, firecrackers, food stalls and crowds of families praying at shrines. Phuket Old Town, with its Hokkien heritage, celebrates too. It is not an official nationwide public holiday, but many Chinese-run shops close for a few days.

Makha Bucha commemorates a gathering of 1,250 disciples around the Buddha. It is a public holiday and a quiet, beautiful evening to be in Thailand: after sunset, worshippers walk three times around the temple's ordination hall holding candles, incense and lotus flowers (the wian tian procession).

Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year and the one festival everybody has heard of. The spiritual side is gentle: families visit temples, build sand stupas and pour scented water over the hands of elders to ask for their blessing. On the streets it becomes a nationwide water fight with buckets, water guns and trucks full of splashing teenagers. Chiang Mai, around the old city moat, is famous for the biggest and longest celebration; in Bangkok, Silom Road and Khao San Road are the hotspots.

The most important day in the Buddhist calendar marks the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and passing. As on Makha Bucha, temples hold candlelit processions at dusk. In Chiang Mai, thousands of pilgrims traditionally walk up the mountain road to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep on the eve of the festival.

Asahna Bucha and, the following day, Khao Phansa mark the start of the three-month Buddhist Lent, when monks stay in their temples for the rainy season. Many young Thai men are ordained around this time. Families bring monks large candles to last through Lent, and in Ubon Ratchathani, in the north-east, this has grown into the Candle Festival, with huge, intricately carved wax sculptures paraded through the city.

During the first nine days of the ninth Chinese lunar month, Phuket's Chinese community abstains from meat and alcohol to purify body and mind. Street stalls marked with yellow flags sell vegan food, and devotees dressed in white follow processions from the town's shrines. The most striking sight is the ma song, entranced devotees who pierce their cheeks with skewers and blades. Bangkok's Chinatown hosts a gentler version focused on food.

On the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, Thais float a krathong, a small raft of banana trunk and leaves decorated with flowers, a candle and incense, to thank the water spirits and let go of bad luck. Every river, canal and lake glows with candles. Sukhothai, often described as the festival's birthplace, holds a large celebration with light shows among its ruins; in Bangkok, the banks of the Chao Phraya are the place to be.

Yi Peng is the northern (Lanna) celebration held at the same time as Loy Krathong. Chiang Mai decorates its temples and old city with paper lanterns, holds parades and, on the main nights, releases sky lanterns (khom loi). The images of thousands of lanterns rising at once usually come from organised, ticketed releases outside the city.

Every month, Haad Rin beach on Koh Phangan hosts an all-night party with several sound systems, neon body paint, fire shows and buckets of cocktails. It draws thousands of mostly young travellers. The date usually matches the full moon but can shift by a day or two when the full moon falls on a Buddhist holiday. An entrance fee is generally charged.

The international New Year is a big night in Thailand too. Bangkok puts on fireworks along the Chao Phraya river and in the main shopping districts, and the islands throw beach parties. It falls in the peak of the high season, so it is the most expensive and crowded week of the year.