The New
Year begins at City Hall.
Phasakorn Channgam
Pattaya welcomed in the “year of the rabbit” with
prayers, firecrackers and lion dances as residents celebrated Chinese New
Year’s across the city.
The three-day observance began Feb. 2 with the pre-New
Year’s observance of “Pay Homage Day” when Thais of Chinese extraction pray
to their gods and ancestors for good luck. Prayer alters filled with meat
dishes, sweets like fluffy rice flower cakes, steamed dumplings and fruit
and even whiskey could be spotted in front of homes and shrines across the
area. Evil spirits were cast aside with long bursts of firecrackers.
The actual Chinese New Year’s Day, Feb. 3, was marked
with more firecrackers and colorful dances featuring dragons and lions.
Hotels, including the Hard Rock and Mike, brought in their own troupes and
jumping creatures danced well into the evening, with a lion and dragon
making calls in each of the bars along Walking Street.
The city’s official New Year’s festival took place this
year in Naklua, the birthplace of greater Pattaya, with a three-day
celebration at Lan Pho Park.
Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh kicked things off with an
early morning homage to Prince Chumphon, the “father” of Pattaya, at his
statue on Pratamnak Hill. Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranon
performed similar duties at the Sawang Boriboon Foundation’s headquarters in
Naklua.
The main celebration took place at Lan Pho Park with
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome serving as host of the Pattaya Chinatown. There
were, of course, more dancing lions and dragons. But revelers were also
treated to music, performing artists from the mainland and Taiwan, a parade
and Little Chinese Girl pageant.
Pattaya
Administrators pray to the Gods
at the Sawang Boriboon Foundation in Naklua.
Dragon
dancers perform at the Prince Chumporn Khet Udomsak Monument on Pratamnak
Hill.
Saran
Tantichamnan, GM of Central Festival Pattaya Beach, and his dragon and lion
dance team visit shopkeepers to wish them a Happy New Year.
Lions enter the Hard
Rock Hotel Pattaya to help bring prosperity to all.
People
of Thai-Chinese heritage purchase items for good luck.
The
dragon winds its way down Walking Street.
The
grand dragon makes its way through Naklua.
Beautiful young maidens perform a Chinese cultural show in Naklua.
This
lovely visitor poses for a commemorative photo with one of the lion dancers.
The Eng
Kor Pa Bu dancers perform in Naklua.
Chinese
acrobats perform at Hard Rock Hotel, Pattaya.
Feeding
the dragon in front of Mike Shopping Mall.
City
officials gather at the Prince Chumporn Khet Udomsak Monument on Pratamnak
Hill to pay homage to the revered prince.
Pullman
Pattaya Aisawan welcomes the Chinese New Year with a ceremony led by
Operations Manager Serge Rigodin (centre), along with hotel executives and
staff to pray for good luck in the year of the Rabbit, and to show gratitude
for all the good things received in the past year.
