Thai Temple Fair: Temple fairs often happen to celebrate holy days, merit-making ceremonies, or the temple’s annual anniversary. In the evening Temple turns into a festival where locals and families gather to enjoy the night, some come to Temple festival just to get a nostalgic feeling of their childhood. The atmosphere is completely different from what temple would feel like during the day, you will see strings of yellow bulbs glowing against old temple walls, food stalls surrounding the temple, kids running around full of joy, loudspeakers blasting traditional or folk music, and families playing some games in the fair to win the prize for their children.
This is what festival used to feel like in the past and the temple fair is slowly coming back to people’s attention after it has been quiet for a long time.
Games and Rides:
In the temple fair you will find many games and rides around the temple, ready for you to enjoy yourself with your family and friends. Here are some of the most popular games and rides you will see at the temple fair.
1. Balloon Darts: This is the most casual game that you can find at every temple fair in Thailand. The rules are simple, stand behind the line (if you are women or kids, they might allow you to step in front of the line), throw darts at the ballons, if you hit the ballons in the total amount they tell you, you will win a prize. If you pay for 5 darts and hit 3 out of 5 ballons from the same roll you will get a small prize, but if you hit all of the ballons in the same roll you will win a big prize. If you like to take a risk, you can pay for one dart and if it hits you win a prize, but the cost will be more than usual. Most prizes are dolls or plushies, there might be some toys or candys for smalls kids if they are able to hit one.
2. Lucky Dip: You may know it as lucky draw, it’s the same rule: you pick a piece of paper and give it to the staff, if the number you get matches the one on the prize you win that prize. The prize can be anything from a bag of candy, a bucket to a refrigerator, TV or a bicycle.
3. Bingo: This is the normal bingo game all of you know, same rules but different prizes. You can pay for multiple bingo board for one person to increase your chance of winning. The prize can be anything from dolls to small radios or even a bed.
4. Shooting games: There are multiple kinds of shooting game for you to choose at temple fair. You can choose to play the one you have to shoot small plushies, shoot the stack of cans, or just a regular shot on the paper to test your accuracy. Most of the prizes from shooting games are dolls.
5. Rides: for rides you can find Ferris Wheels, Viking ride, carousel and more.
Aside from these rides and games there are a few more attractions you can go to at the temple fair such as hunted house, freak show, or the main stage concert/show. In one fair you can experience a lot of Thai traditional way of fun. The stage show can be anything from concert, Li Kay show, or Thai folk dance that you can join them and have fun on a stage.
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And don’t worry, you will get hungry in the middle of fun because lot of food stalls are here in the fair, some you might have tried before and some that are not normally found in the markets, some may be able to find only at the temple fair. If you see something that looks unfamiliar, give it a chance and ask the vendors what they are and if you feel like they must be good, try it don’t hesitate, you might find a new favorite menu.
When is the best time to visit the temple fair: There are no specific times for the fair, it can vary throughout the year depending on the location and festival at the moment. But mostly during Loy Krathong, Makha Bucha Day, End of Buddhist Lent, and Local temple anniversaries.
If you are looking to go somewhere that can give you a feeling of Thailan’s old days and see how Thai people use to celebrate special occasions you can not miss temple fair. It’s joyful, loud, spiritual, messy, and community driven. You will be able to see the way of life and how belief and joy meet in the middle.