Sat Thai

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Sat Thai (Thai: สารทไทย, pronounced [sàːt tʰāj]; also spelled Sart Thai) is a traditional Thai mid-year festival, held on the new moon at the end of the tenth lunar month. It has many features of animism, attributing souls or spirits to animals, plants and other entities.

Etymology

Sat (ศารท or สารท (สาท), RTGS sat) comes from Pali sārada, which means 'autumnal'.^[1] It specifically refers to the season "when the grain is in the ear": rice grain panicles droop as seeds reach full size and fills with milky starch in the days before harvest time. Fruits also are in the bud. Sat Thai is known as such to differentiate it from the Ghost Festival, known in Thai as Sat Chin.

Observance

Sat Thai Day occurs at the end of

Sat Thai Day usually corresponds with the beginning of the nine-day Vegetarian Festival, which is widely observed by Thai Chinese and some Thais. It appears on calendars as "Begin 9-day vegetarian festival" (roem thet-sa-gan kin-che 9 wan, เริ่มเทศกาลกินเจ ๙ วัน) — kin-che (กินเจ) is to vow in the manner of Vietnamese or Chinese Buddhists to eat a strict vegetarian diet.^[2]

See also

• Mid-Autumn Festival
• Lughnasadh, a Celtic festival with many similar traditions
• Sat Duan Sip

References

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