Counted in moons

The Thai year is counted in moons, and it does not line up with this one

Songkran sits in month five, Khao Phansa in month eight, Loy Krathong on the full moon of month twelve. Below, those months against the rain in Bangkok and the rain here.

123456789101112 DecJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNov
  • Rain in Bangkok
  • Rain in Vancouver
  • 5Songkran
  • 6Visakha Bucha
  • 8Khao Phansa
  • 11Ok Phansa
  • 12Loy Krathong

Lunar month above, Gregorian below.

The year, in twelve numbersThe two rainfall peaks sit five months apart. Bangkok floods in the ninth month; Vancouver in the twelfth, which is the month the floats go out here.

How the arithmetic works →

A temple hall on a spring morning, adults kneeling on mats, one pouring water from a small bowl
Month five, and everything gets wetThe first water of the year goes over a Buddha image, indoors, before anybody is thrown any.Thai Vancouver picture desk

What the water is actually for

Water poured over Buddha images and over the hands of elders is the observance; the street soaking is what grew around it.

All of April, and everything gets wet →

Khao Phansa, and staying put

For three months of the rains the monastic community stays in one place, and the lay year reorganises itself around that.

Ochre monks' robes drying on a line against a grey overcast sky

Loy Krathong on a pond in November

A banana-leaf float, a candle and a coin go onto the water on the full moon of the twelfth month — in Canada, onto whatever water there is.

Small candle-lit floats on dark water at night, adults crouched at the bank

The temple keeps the calendar. The grocer keeps what can be cooked for it.

And in Vancouver →

The part that only exists here

Six frames from a Thai year

A row of small Buddha images on a table with bowls of jasmine water beside them
The bowls are filled before anybody sits down.
Shoes left in rows outside a temple hall door
Shoes off at the step. Most of the etiquette is legible from the doorway.
A very large decorated candle on a wheeled float
A retreat candle is built to burn for three months.
A banana-leaf float part-assembled on a table with flowers and pins
Leaf, pin, flower, candle — all of it meant to be gone by morning.
A low-rise community building on a wet Vancouver street
A low-rise building on a wet street is what a Lower Mainland temple looks like.
A rural road between rice fields under a wide sky
Isan, the north and the south are three different countries to cook in.

Everything on this site →

Colophon

Kept going by

Kitchens, temples, and travel desks we keep beside this calendar.