The Thai
holiday calendar varies widely from the Western holiday calendar.
As the country is Buddhist there is not a single Christian holiday,
neither Easter nor Christmas. The only holidays that match the
Western calendar are New Year Day and Labor Day.
Thailand has
more holidays than most Western countries. They are easily categorized
in two groups: religious holidays and holidays pertaining
to the monarchy.
Aside from
the normal national holidays, there are many regional holidays,
mostly in context with local religious festivals. Then there are
ethnic holidays which are not of national ranking but nevertheless
have the effect that many businesses are closed. The most important
but not the only one is Chinese New Year in February.
Furthermore,
the government may declare a holiday for special occasions. This
had happened in October 1991 when the IMF and the Worldbank had
their joint meeting in Bangkok. The two weekdays of the meeting
were declared holidays primarily to ease traffic in Bangkok.
But in spite of the fact that the IMF and the Worldbank had no
business in the Thai provinces, the holiday was observed throughout
the country and even at Thai embassies and consulates abroad.
The cost of two additional holidays must have been immense for
the national economy but no-one bothered to do any accounting.
Most religious
holidays, like in the Christian religious calendar, are attached
to the lunar calendar and are frequently on nights of a
full moon. This writer feels that these were logically chosen
because before the days of electrical illumination it was mainly
the moon which had to provide light after dark.
