Chinese New Year in Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand was a colorful (mostly red) and festive event. It was a hodgepodge of traditions like face readings (horoscopes), prayer, food, dragons, emperors and empresses and protest of course.
Prayer, face readings (horoscopes), face threading, chestnuts roasting, and oranges (I didn’t grab a picture but I think you’ve seen them before, they’re round orange fruit) all seem to be parts of the tradition of Chinese New Year here in Bangkok.
- Emperors and Empresses
The emperors and empresses were the most fun of all. Each and every one of them were photo ready and looked liked they could have saved the day with their swords or laughter at a moments notice. With the exception of the guy with the leopard loin cloth – I think he might have been the nemesis.
Today was the first time that I walked within the Bangkok Shutdown & Restart protest. From my understanding as of now (the intent of the protest is in constant change) the people are protesting the upcoming election- they want to stop people from being able to vote for the a new parliament so that the old parliament that they want to replace won’t be voted back in. The protesters in Bangkok are shutting down the streets by setting shopping markets, concerts, food stalls, marches and tents to prevent access to major roadways. There was a fair share of protest t-shirts, jewelry, flags, hats and noise makers at the Chinese New Year celebration. There was also a parade on the street leading to the Chinese New Year celebration. The top right and bottom right photos are from outside of the Silom MRT station which was on my route to Chinatown.
I was at the celebration for about 2 hours and was surprised to only see the dragons in the pictures above.
There were a ton of food options available, although there wasn’t that much Chinese food. I enjoyed a gyro, pork ribs, a little bit of stuffed crab (mostly bread), coconut ice-cream, and a fried coconut dessert.
Unfortunately I ate all of that junk food before finding the fresh noodles. Oh well, the line was super long anyways.
OK, so is it just me or does a doll study need to be done here? Out of all the things being sold I did not see one single Thai or Chinese doll for sale. At least this singing boy had one Asian puppet doll.
The feel of the day: crowded, fun and energetic
How did you celebrate Chinese New Year?
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