Talk:Public holidays in Thailand

Revision in progress
Working on a revision in my sandbox. Pawyilee (talk) 14:25, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I've got it as good as I can get it so will publish it now; but it begs for articles on Thetsagarn Sart and Moon Festival (Buddhist) Pawyilee (talk) 15:29, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Copy from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Thailand
[This article] was re-written by me to add introductory text before the plain table that was there before; tweak that table which basically was correct; and add a new topic, Other national observances. Five days on the new table need attention:
 * January 25 Royal Thai Armed Forces Day.
 * February 14 Valentine Day as observed in Thailand.
 * August Thetsagarn Sart.
 * August Thetsagarn Jeen.
 * September Moon Festival (Buddhist), or Thetsagarn Wan wâi Prá Jahn, Thai: เทศกาลวันไหว้พระจันทร์ in case somebody knows a better translation.

Help! Pawyilee (talk) 09:43, 10 July 2008 (UTC)


 * From what I know, and comparing with the Thai Wikipedia:
 * The Royal Thai Armed Forces Day has been moved to 18 January since last year.
 * Thetsagarn Sart (RTGS Sat), is known as วันสารทไทย (Wan Sat Thai) to differentiate it from สารทจีน. I suggest moving the article to something with "Festival" or "Day" instead of "Thetsagarn" (e.g. Sart Festival).
 * วันสารทจีน (RTGS Sat Chin) (in the 7th Chinese lunar month) corresponds to Ghost Festival, and is different from เทศกาลกินเจ (RTGS Kin Che; in the 9th Chinese lunar month), which has the articles Vegetarian Festival and Nine Emperor Gods Festival. I don't think the term "Thetsagarn Jeen" exists.
 * Thetsagarn Wan wâi Prá Jahn corresponds to Mid-Autumn Festival.
 * For future reference, you might like to try searching the Thai Wikipedia and find corresponding inter-language links to determine English names of Thai words. --Paul_012 (talk) 04:48, 12 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Royal Thai Armed Forces Day commemorates King Naresuan's win in his famous elephant-back duel. Apparently, chronicles of the period have clear reference to the lunar calendar date and, as I recall, give the year as 597, but I do NOT know what era. There is some confusion as to whether that corresponds to 1592 or 1593. The lunar dates would be 25 Jan in 1592, but 18 Jan in 1593. Pinning it down requires changes not only here, but also at Royal Thai Armed Forces and all the date pages.
 * Changed January 25, 1592, to January 18, 1593, to conform to วันกองทัพไทย. Pawyilee (talk) 13:10, 25 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Thetsagarn Sart I started as a result of listing it here, but write now it's awful. Rather than making constant changes there, I'm playing with it in my sandbox.
 * Sart means autumnal or year, name of various plants, corn or fruit ripening in autumn, per link dug up for me by Doug Cooper (doug@th.net) of the Center for Research in Computational Linguistics, Bangkok. This backs up the article on Thai Sart Day from Assumption University (Thailand). This site says the festival occurs "halfway through the year when the grain is in the ear and filled with milk เมื่อถึงกึ่งปีเป็นฤดูกาลที่ข้าวออกรวงเป็นน้ำนม. My Isan wife says the OIC is Phya Sart ไพญาสารท. She described how some rice can be harvested at this time, though it requires far more effort for far less yield than waiting until it's fully ripened and dried on the stalk (which might not happen if Phaya Taen doesn't cooperate). It is one of, but not the only, occasion to pay respect to Mother Rice บูชาแม่โพสพ ไ้น รห who is more like Mother Nature than the Greek goddess Ceres in that the Mothers apparently do not have iconic images, or cults. Another occasion is Wan Puet Mongkol.
 * Thetsagarn Sat using the RTGS Sat would work better than Sart Festival, as it neatly sidesteps the issue of whether it is singular or plural, and also avoids confusion with the unrelated Sart people. Too, an authorized agent for TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand) refers to Sat Thai Period and Sat Thai Day in adding Phetchabun_Province (which, BTW, has some  elements of the Ghost Festival you mentioned, as do other Thai articles I'm painfully) trying to decode). Avoiding singular  Festival avoids implication that there is only one.
 * Sart festivals, plural, would require formatting the article so as to make room for same-same atumnal festivals in all Indianized countries, such as the Buddhist one in Bangladesh that I stumbled across but can't find write now.
 * "Thetsagarn Jeen" exists as a term and an observance, though perhaps you mean transliteration should be RTGS Chin instead of Jeen. Go ogle up Thai: เทศกาลสารทจีน and find this example.
 * "Thetsagarn Kin Che" (using RTGS transliteration of เทศกาลกินเจ) is related in that this 9-day observance begins on the same day as Sat Thai Day and Sat Chin Day (using TAT nomenclature). Vegetarian Festival as written implies it is only observed on Phuket, which is far from the case. Thai Chinese observance apparently did originate there, but Articles of Faith: Thailand’s Vegetarian Festival by Leslie Nevison is a far better account, including what it has to do with the Nine Emperor Gods Festival.
 * "Thetsagarn Wan wâi Prá Jahn" may occur at the same time as the Mid-Autumn Festival, but the latter is a big deal to Chinese people, whereas it's NOT a big deal to the Thai. Other than that, I don't have any info. Pawyilee (talk) 10:10, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

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Greatly revised
The current revision is great! I made a minor edit to close brackets on Victory Monument, and a biggy to stick Yee Peng Lantern Festival in Remarks by Loy Krathong. For Thai, I used ญี่เปง -- ญี่ is an archaic spelling of ยี่ and เปง is an alternate spelling of เป็น See : เทศกาลและงานประเพณี > งานญี่เปงไท-ยวน, : งานญี่เปงไท-ยวน สระบุรี and about 50 others on Google. Which begs the question: What's ไท-ยวน? Pawyilee (talk) 17:04, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Why use archaic spellings instead of common spellings (or at least include the common spelling as well)? This is not an antiquarian source but a general purpose encyclopedia, I thought. --Jeffmcneill (talk) 01:27, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Damrong Rajanubhab day
(วันดำรงราชานุภาพ) does it 1 December or 21 June ?

Thai Wikipedia says it 21 June. Google results split in two, with 21 June as majority, but 1 December is backed by a governemnt's announcement in 2001.

1 December is his death date. 21 June is his birth date, and also the date UNESCO put him in the list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.40.226.64 (talk) 09:25, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Lunar Month 8 versus lunar month 8/8
This article is much improved since I last saw it, but errs in stating that Asalha Puja occurs on Full moon, 8th Thai lunar month (July)b and that the first waning moon, 8th Thai lunar month (July)b marks the beginning of Vassa. Both of these occur in Lunar month 8/8 in Atigamas extra-month years like 2555 BE/AD 2012, so please restore and * or August lunar calendar Month 8/8 or better-worded version. --Pawyilee (talk) 14:31, 20 April 2012 (UTC)
 * It isn't just these two days. In lunar leap years, every Buddhist holiday is shifted one month back, so Magha Puja falls in the fourth month instead of the third, Vesak in the seventh instead of sixth, etc. I've tried to avoid excessive wordiness by consolidating the notes and saying "In lunar leap years, these take place one month later" in note b. Feel free to clarify the note if it isn't enough. --Paul_012 (talk) 19:09, 20 April 2012 (UTC)
 * It's enough. I'm always too wordy, and thank you for being succinct. --Pawyilee (talk) 02:54, 21 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I think it is misleading for both the Western "usual" month in parentheses, and the Thai lunar month. Both require one to read the ^b footnote in order to get the correct information, which is not usually the point of footnotes. To be more accurate, a month-range should be used, and then the footnote helps explain the month range. --Jeffmcneill (talk) 01:26, 2 February 2016 (UTC)