The ‘Hungry Ghost Festival’ or the ‘Por Tor Festival’

It is believed by some of the Phuket Community that the spirits of our dead ancestors will visit them once a year on Earth.

This mean that tables are set with food in homes and candles and joss sticks are lit and doors of the homes are left open. This is an invitation to the spirits to come into the home and the spirits will have left when the candles and joss sticks have burnt out.

 There is a more public display and this is the baking of cakes that are shaped as turtles and then covered with ‘red icing sugar’.

 The turtles are covered in red icing and are made locally – much like the ‘Mooncakes’. The turtles are bright red because in this tradition this is the colour of ‘good luck’. The shape of the cake is a turtle because this symbolises ‘long life’.

 

 

These turtles are carried in a parade through Phuket along with a number of people in their local dress. The red turtles will be enormous and carried on a vehicle or will be carried by hand.

 

The parade will finish in Phuket Town, usually at the large Chinese Shrine called Jui Tui.
 

 

The Red Turtles however will be taken into the Car Park above the enclosed Local Market. Here the Car Park will be full of tables with food prepared for the spirits – whole roasted pig, deep fried duck, red Fanta drinks, carved fruits and more red turtle cakes!
 

 

In the middle of this there is a Shrine and carpet set up for this occasion. Here the local dignitaries will give their blessing to the gods and ask for luck for the future.

               

 

 

Songkran

Songkran is a time for family reunions, visits to temples and spring housecleaning. – Songkran is the celebration of the traditional Thai New Year and lasts several days.

During the festival, revellers participate in traditional water pouring, which varies for a gentle pour onto the head or shoulders, to a full body splash! The symbolism of the water is important because it represents the cleansing of all the misfortunes in the previous year and a new beginning for the New Year.

Many temples (Wats) will be full of people waiting to give alms to monks, either waiting to receive their blessing inside the Wat, or waiting outside to give offerings to congregations of monks.

Many Wats will feature pagodas made of sand, build outside the temple walls. This sand represents all the soil that has left the temples on the shoes of all of its visitors. They will be decorated with flags, candles and other gifts placed by visitors to the Wat.

A special feature of Songkran celebrations is the Rod Nam Dum Hua ceremony, which is celebrated throughout the day. On this day younger people will pour fragrant water on the hands of the elder’s as a gesture of humility and as a request for their blessings.

People will also pour fragrant water over Buddhist statues in the temples to clean them – others make merit by doing this in nine different Buddhist temples on this particular day. Traditionally this water would be then taken to wash the hands of the elders of your community.

Ram Nam Dum Hua is also an occasion where if a family cannot visit the temple, they will wake up early to give alms to the monks that pass by their homes. Many households do this every week but at this time it is the whole family who waits to give alms to the monks.

Traditionally the water used during the Ram Nam Dum Hua ceremony is fragrant. Even today, fragrant water can be found in found in people’s homes and Wats during this time – even the fountain at Cape Panwa Hotel will contain fragrant water during the Ram Nam Dum Hua festivities.

It is most certain that the water that you will encounter during the Songkran Festival will come from a wide variety of sources, such as water guns, ice cube trucks, buckets, hoses and even fire trucks.

At Cape Panwa Hotel we celebrate Songkran by visiting a Buddhist temple in the morning, having an enormous water fight on the beach, blessing people who selflessly take care of others and have a Thai buffet on the beach at Panwa House.

Don’t forget that if you are splashed, the response you should give is ‘Sawasdee Pi Mai’ (Happy New Year), and then splash them back!

              

Eggs on the Beach at Cape Panwa Hotel

It was the weekend: many people had escaped from work in Bangkok, choosing to spend the time at the Cape Panwa Hotel in Phuket. 

After my early breakfast (06:30), I placed myself carefully on the beach, began to watch the waves slowly come closer to the foot of my sun bed, I was alone thinking to myself: this is paradise. 

I suddenly found myself back in reality when a small child tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “Have you seen any painted eggs or monster stones?” I was a bit startled but remembered that it was Easter. 

The children staying at Cape Panwa Hotel or Kantary Bay were having an Easter Egg Hunt! One of the girls introduced me to a monster stone. I listened to her excitedly tell me she had just found the stone that she had painted. 

On moving from the beach to the pool I saw children colouring little ‘Easter Books’ that the hotel had prepared for them. The fun and games of celebrating Easter continued throughout the day, finishing at Café Kantary in Panwa Village. 

There I saw the same girl collecting a prize for finding a painted egg and monster stones: a specially designed Easter Cake.

I’m looking forward to next year already. 

Happy Easter!

              

Welcoming the Year of the Snake (蛇)

The Chinese had a very great influence on Phuket and this is especially prevalent in  the architecture of Phuket Old Town. If you are really interested in the origins of this influence, I suggest you visit Phuket Thai Hua Museum.

At Cape Panwa Hotel, we did not celebrate Chinese New Year for the traditional fifteen days but just the last night.

Chef Chanman and his team put on a Chinese buffet fit for an emperor featuring all the traditional delicacies, whilst guests were entertained by Chinese Cabaret, Chinese musicians and the traditional Chinese Lion that evening.

Some of our guests benefitted from further entertainment at Phuket Old Town Festival where the celebrations lasted for three days.

Stay tuned for highlights in the Otter’s next blog.

新年快樂 (xīn nián kuài lè)

              

Welcoming in the New Year at Cape Panwa Hotel

Happy New Year Frankie

At Cape Panwa Hotel the mood was happy, the breeze was calm and the food was great.

The party started with a fabulous buffet – my favourite dish was the Beef Wellington Fillet from Top of the Reef (the hotel’s fine dining restaurant).

Tim and his team then organised games for the guests to join in where everyone won a prize – mostly ice cream and t-shirts!

There were also a number of entertaining shows, which included an elephant playing a harmonica, a monkey playing basketball, a human puppet, a golden Thai Dance.

A traditional Thai Victory Drum roll heralded countdown time.

At midnight fireworks exploded all around us partyers, glasses were raised, kisses were shared and resolutions were made – thank you to the staff for making such an effort.

After that we danced the night away at Cape Panwa Hotel and the song we chose to welcome in 2013 was, of course, Gangnam Style – and everybody knew the steps to that.

Happy New Year All