Chinese New Year Explained + Schedule | 2019 Bangkok, Thailand
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The Chinese New Year or 'Spring Festival' is China's most important festival and is a big happening in Bangkok because there are a lot of people with Chinese roots in Bangkok. The Chinese New Year 2019 falls on Tuesday, February 5, 2019, and is the beginning of the year of the PIG.
If you want to experience the days working up to the Chinese new Year, and see how Bangkok prepares for this event, join us on a bicycle tour. We will take you off the beaten path, and show you the REAL Bangkok.
Spring Festival’s Eve (Monday, February 4th, 2019):
The Day Before Chinese New Year
Various events and small parades spread around Chinatown most of the day and evening. There is no set schedule for these events, but throughout the day you will also see acrobatic demonstrations and dragon dancers. It is a good build-up to the main event the next day. In the evening many homes host traditional reunion dinners for their visiting family members.
Chinese New Year (Tuesday, February 5th, 2019):
Also called the Spring Festival
Throughout the day drummers, lion dancers, and the long Dragon make their way to all the major Temples in Bangkok. We ran into the former Prime Minister and her crew while around 11am at Wat Arun. Below is the official schedule our hotel gave us for the main events on Yaowarat Road which was pretty accurate each year.
Noon: Official start although a lot of stuff is set up by 10am
3pm: First Dragon Parade on Yaowarat Road
5:45pm: Fan Dance
7pm: Golden Dragon Dance
8:20pm: Fan Dance
8:30pm: Thai singers and dancers start at the stage near Chinatown Gate and go off and on until midnight
9:30pm: Dragon Parade with the long dragon all lit up in LED lights. If the road is being cleared by police and they move you to the sidewalk it is because one of the Thai Princesses is about to make her way through.
10:50pm: Traditional Drummers get a solo
Midnight: Happy New Year (Xin Nian Hao)
New Year’s Day (Wednesday, February 6th, 2019):
1st day of the new Lunar Year
Largely considered a day of rest and hanging out with family, but there are still many events around Chinatown. Expect the neighborhood to still be more festive than normal because of the influx of visitors.
Special thanks to: chinesenewyear.net/ for the information.
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Looking for an authentic and unique adventure? Co van Kessel bike tours and boat tours provides a refreshing alternative to the tired tourist experience. We do not battle the crowds at clichéd destinations promoted in guide books, but turn your attention to quaint local communities and charming excursions into the fascinating lifestyle and culture of real Thai people. Every day is different and every tour is a surprise as we focus not on destinations, but lose ourselves in the enchantment of the journey itself.
Co van Kessel, an innovative and adventurous Dutchman, pioneered bicycle tours in Bangkok more than 30 years ago. As a longtime resident and self-professed lover of Bangkok, he understood very well the picture of accelerated urban development (gridlocked traffic, concrete towers, and choking pollution) that has plagued the recent image of the city. He also had a hunch that this was not what Bangkok or Thailand was all about.
Making it his goal to re-discover Bangkok, Co spent thousands of hours on his mountain bike exploring the vast network of local streets, alleyways, footpaths and canals between the main urban thoroughfares. What he found, lurking behind the facade of modernization, were hidden worlds of peace and tranquility, a picture of “real” Thai life that has remained unchanged for countless decades; an identity of a city that is true to the Thai people, yet largely unknown to outsiders.
Whether it’s the colorful sights and smells of the local markets, the fascinating life of locals along the canals, or the surprising existence of bountiful green belts, Co discovered the essence of what makes Bangkok one of Asia’s most captivating cities. Since then, it has been his mission to share these discoveries with the rest of the world.
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Our mission at Co van Kessel Bangkok Tours is to provide our guests with a singularly unique travel experience in Thailand. All our tours use Co’s extensive topographical knowledge of the greater Bangkok area as well as his keen eye for the interesting to take you where nobody else can or will.
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