Feast Days: Food at Thai Festivals and Celebrations

In Thailand, almost every celebration involves feeding someone. Food is offered to monks, set out for ancestors, cooked in quantity for guests and shared with neighbours. A festival without food would hardly count as a festival at all.

The calendar mixes Buddhist, Chinese, Muslim and national occasions, and the food changes with each. Some festivals have specific dishes attached to them. Others are less about a particular dish than about the act of giving and sharing.

Merit-making: the food behind every festival

Many Thai celebrations begin with tham bun, making merit. In Buddhist practice, giving food to monks is one of the most common and important ways to do this. Every morning, monks walk their alms round, and people place rice, curries, sweets and other food into their bowls. On holy days, and on important occasions, families take food to the temple instead.

Merit-making food is usually ordinary home cooking at its best: rice, a curry, a stir-fry, a soup, fruit and a sweet, often packed neatly in bags or tiffin carriers. Because the merit is shared with the giver's family, including relatives who have died, offering food in their name is a common way of remembering them. Birthdays, house blessings and anniversaries are all marked this way.

Songkran: the Thai New Year

Songkran, from 13 to 15 April, is the traditional Thai New Year. It is known abroad for its water fights, but at its heart it is a family festival. Many people travel home to their parents and grandparents, and the days often begin with merit-making at the local temple.

Families pour scented water over the hands of elders as a sign of respect, and cook large meals for the relatives who have come home. Songkran falls in the hottest part of the year, which is why khao chae, rice in cool, flower-scented water with its small side dishes, is closely linked with the season in central Thailand. Many people also bring sweets and other food to the temple for monks over the holiday.

Loy Krathong and the temple fair

Loy Krathong takes place on the full moon of the twelfth month of the Thai lunar calendar, usually in November. People float krathong, small rafts traditionally made from banana trunk and leaves and decorated with flowers, candles and incense, on rivers, canals and ponds.

There is no single dish tied to Loy Krathong. Instead, the festival is a big night for street food, as stalls gather around the lakes, riverbanks and temples where the floating takes place. In practice it often feels like a temple fair, or ngan wat.

Temple fairs are held throughout the year, for a temple's anniversary, a festival or to raise funds. Alongside the games, music and performances, the stalls sell the snacks Thais associate with a night out:

Grilled squid and meatballs on skewers, with sweet chilli sauce.
Sai krok Isaan, the slightly sour fermented pork and rice sausages of the northeast.
Khanom buang, crisp little crepes filled with meringue-like cream and sweet toppings.
Candy floss, roasted chestnuts and coconut ice cream, sometimes served in a bread roll.
Fried snacks, from spring rolls to battered vegetables, sold in paper bags.

Chinese New Year in Thai-Chinese homes

For Thailand's large Thai-Chinese community, Chinese New Year is one of the most important dates of the year. Many families still describe it in three parts: a day for buying, a day for worship and a day for going out. On the day of worship, households set out offerings for the gods and the ancestors.

The offerings follow well-established patterns. Boiled whole chicken, pork and often duck or fish are laid out together, along with fruit such as mandarin oranges, sweets, tea and liquor. Sticky steamed cakes, known as khanom kheng, and other auspicious sweets are common, with names and colours chosen for their associations with luck and prosperity. After the prayers, the food is taken down and cooked or shared by the family, so nothing is wasted.

Children receive red envelopes of money, and Yaowarat and other Chinese districts fill with red lanterns, food stalls and crowds. The Vegetarian Festival, later in the Chinese calendar, is the other great food occasion of the Thai-Chinese year, when many people eat only plant-based jay food for nine days.

Weddings and ordinations

Weddings and the ordination of young men as monks are two of the biggest family occasions in Thai life, and both involve cooking for a crowd. A traditional Buddhist wedding often starts in the morning with monks chanting blessings, after which they are offered a meal before midday. The guests eat once the monks have been served.

Auspicious sweets play a large part. Golden desserts made with egg yolks, such as thong yip and foi thong, are often given in sets, because their names and colour suggest wealth and lasting happiness. Larger receptions, particularly in Bangkok and among Thai-Chinese families, are often served as a Chinese-style banquet at round tables, with a long succession of shared courses.

An ordination, called buat, is usually preceded by a celebration at the family home or the temple, with music, a procession and plenty of food for relatives and neighbours. In villages, neighbours often help cook in large pots and woks, and the shared work is part of the occasion.

Ramadan and Hari Raya in the South

Southern Thailand has large Muslim communities, especially in the provinces near the Malaysian border, and Muslims live throughout the country. During the month of Ramadan, they fast from dawn until sunset. In the late afternoon, markets and roadside stalls fill with food for breaking the fast, which many begin with dates and water before a full meal.

The end of Ramadan is celebrated as Hari Raya, the Malay name widely used in the South for Eid al-Fitr. Families visit one another, ask forgiveness, and share festive dishes and sweets. Rice cooked in woven palm leaf pouches, known by the Malay name ketupat, is a familiar sight in many southern households. A second festival, Hari Raya Haji, marks the time of the pilgrimage to Mecca, and meat from animals sacrificed for the occasion is shared with family, neighbours and those in need.

Joining in

Visitors are often welcome at Thai celebrations, and food is usually the easiest way in. A few points help:

Watch the order of things. At Buddhist occasions, monks are served first, and guests wait.
Accept what is offered. Refusing food at a celebration can seem unfriendly, so take a little of everything.
Be thoughtful during Ramadan. In Muslim areas, avoid eating or drinking openly in public during the fasting hours.
Go to the temple fair. It is the most relaxed festival food of all, and nobody needs an invitation.

Seen through its festivals, Thai food is less about individual dishes than about generosity: cooking more than enough, giving the best to others first, and making sure everyone at the gathering has eaten.