For fifteen days in the tenth lunar month, Nakhon Si Thammarat believes its ancestors are released to visit. The city answers with trays of food and a parade of offerings.
The sweets give it away before anything else does. In the tenth lunar month the markets of Nakhon Si Thammarat fill with five specific things — none of them made for taste alone, all of them made to be given to the dead.
What the festival is for
Sart Duan Sip, the tenth-month merit-making festival, rests on a belief held across southern Thailand: that for a set period each year the ancestors who are still working off their karma are released to visit the living. Families are expected to feed them.
The main days fall around the middle of the tenth lunar month, which usually lands in September. The exact dates move with the lunar calendar, so check the year's dates before booking travel.
The festival is strongest in Nakhon Si Thammarat, where it is a full civic event with a parade, a fair, competitions and days of temple activity, but it is observed across the southern provinces in smaller family form.
The hmrab, and what goes in it
The offering itself is called a hmrab — a tray or basket assembled by a family and carried to the temple. Rice and dry goods make up the base, and five sweets carry the meaning:
- Khanom la — a lacy sheet of fried rice flour, standing for clothing.
- Khanom phong — light and puffed, standing for a raft or boat to cross the water.
- Khanom kong — a ring, standing for jewellery or ornament.
- Khanom ba — flat and round, standing for money or a token to gamble with.
- Khanom deesam — small and dark, standing for the nails and tools needed to build a house.
Together they equip an ancestor for the journey back. Buying them in the market during the tenth month is the easiest way to understand the festival without asking anyone to explain it.
What you will see if you go
The centre of the public festival is the hmrab procession through the city, with decorated floats of offerings carried to Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan — the great stupa that has anchored Nakhon Si Thammarat for centuries and the natural focus for any pilgrimage here.
After the offerings there is the ceremony of ching pret, in which food set out for the hungry ghosts is scrambled for by the crowd, half ritual and half chaos. A fair runs alongside the religious days: stalls, local sweets, southern food, and evenings that stay busy late.
Going respectfully
This is a family ritual before it is a spectacle. Photograph the parade and the fair freely; be careful around families making offerings and around the moment they hand the tray over. Ask, or stand back.
Dress for a temple: covered shoulders and knees, shoes off inside the halls. September is wet in the south, so carry rain gear and expect the fair to keep going through it.
Getting there
Nakhon Si Thammarat has an airport with flights from Bangkok, and overnight buses run from Bangkok's Southern Bus Terminal (Sai Tai Mai). Trains on the southern line stop here too. During the festival, accommodation in the city fills up — book well ahead, or stay outside the centre and travel in.
Confirm this year's dates with the provincial announcement before you commit to tickets. The lunar calendar does not care about your leave request.
