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.
This year the festival runs 28 September to 12 October 2026, and it arrives at a city that has just changed status.
Sart Duan Sip is the southern Thai merit-making festival of the tenth lunar month, when families make offerings to their ancestors and to the spirits said to be released from hell for the period.
The temple at the centre is now a World Heritage Site
On 25 July 2026, Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan — the great stupa that has anchored Nakhon Si Thammarat for centuries — was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is Thailand's ninth World Heritage property and its sixth cultural site.
That matters for this festival specifically, because Wat Phra Mahathat is where the hmrab procession ends. The 2026 edition is the first Sart Duan Sip since the inscription, and the city is expecting more visitors than usual as a result.
Practical translation: book earlier than you would have in previous years.
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 or early October. The exact dates move each year, so check before booking anything.
The festival is strongest in Nakhon Si Thammarat, where it is a full civic event with a procession, a fair, competitions and days of temple activity. 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. Five sweets carry the meaning:
| Sweet | What it is | What it stands for |
|---|---|---|
| Khanom la | A lacy sheet of fried rice flour | Clothing |
| Khanom phong | Light and puffed | A raft or boat, to cross the water |
| Khanom kong | A ring | Jewellery, ornament |
| Khanom ba | Flat and round | Money, or a token to gamble with |
| Khanom deesam | Small and dark | Nails and tools, to build a house |
Together they equip an ancestor for the journey back — clothed, transported, funded, housed. Buying them in the market during the tenth month is the easiest way to understand this festival without asking anyone to explain it to you.
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. The other main venues are Somdet Phra Srinagarindra 84 Park at Thung Tha Lat, where the fair sets up, and the public grounds at Sanam Na Mueang.
After the offerings comes ching pret — food set out for the hungry ghosts and then scrambled for by the crowd, half ritual and half chaos, and genuinely the most surprising twenty minutes of the whole event.
A fair runs alongside the religious days: stalls, southern food, local sweets, and evenings that stay busy late.
Going respectfully
This is a family ritual before it is a spectacle. Photograph the procession and the fair freely. Be careful around families assembling offerings, and around the moment they hand a tray over — ask, or stand back.
Dress for a temple: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off inside the halls. The full set of conventions applies, and applies harder during a festival than on an ordinary Tuesday.
September and early October are wet in the south. Carry rain gear and expect the fair to keep going through it, because it will.
Getting there
Nakhon Si Thammarat has an airport with flights from Bangkok, overnight buses run from the Southern Bus Terminal at Sai Tai Mai, and trains on the southern line stop here.
Accommodation in the city fills for the festival, and 2026 will be worse than usual given the inscription. Book well ahead or stay outside the centre and travel in.
If you are here outside the festival, the temple is open daily and free, and it is worth the trip on its own — a Sri Lankan-influenced stupa with a history running back well over a thousand years, standing in a provincial city that most itineraries fly straight past.
The northeast has its own nights when the spirit world is said to come close: Phi Ta Khon in Dan Sai, Loei, usually in June or July, and the naga fireballs on the Mekong on Ok Phansa, two weeks after this festival ends in 2026.
Know before you go
| 2026 dates | 28 September – 12 October 2026. Dates move each year with the lunar calendar |
|---|---|
| Where | Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan (the procession's destination), Thung Tha Lat park, Sanam Na Mueang |
| Temple hours | Daily 08:30–16:30; the on-site museum until about 16:00 |
| Temple entry | Free. Donations welcomed. Dress code enforced |
| Getting there | Flights from Bangkok, overnight buses from Sai Tai Mai, trains on the southern line |
| New status | Wat Phra Mahathat inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 25 July 2026 — expect larger crowds than previous years |
| Official sources | Nakhon Si Thammarat Province · UNESCO World Heritage Centre |
Festival dates checked September 2026. The provincial announcement is the authority and it is published only a few weeks ahead — confirm with Nakhon Si Thammarat province before booking flights around a specific day.
