New Year draws faithful to shrines and temples
The Bangkok City Pillar Shrine and Wat Phra Kaew drew crowds of faithful on Sunday morning to pray for an auspicious New Year.
They began arriving at the city’s shrine on Lak Muang Road in Phra Nakhon before sunrise to place colourful clothes around the Buddha images corresponding with the day of their birth, and refilled the lamps near the images of the Buddha.
An official at Bangkok City Pillar Shrine said the area around it had been crowded since New Year’s Eve, while others arrived before it opened at 5am this morning. The official added that the shrine remained open an extra hour – till 6pm – on New Year’s Eve.
“I have never seen such large crowds for the New Year as this year,” the official said.
Large numbers of Buddhists were also observed at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha on New Year’s Day, and at Chao Pho Suea Shrine on Tanao Road in Phra Nakhon district. The latter is a Chinese temple where believers perform rites to ward off bad luck.
