Sart Thai

วันสารทไทย

The Sart Thai festival is a sort of Memorial Day in Thailand, it's a day to remember the dead with prayers, merged with Buddhist rituals and merit making.

Thai Buddhists see death as a part of the cycle of life and there is a unity between life and death. The Thai people believe that it's due to their ancestors that they are who they are today. Therefore, the Thais pay their ancestors special respect on the day of the Sart Thai festival.

In Thailand, Sart Thai marks a very special occasion when the living have the opportunity to show respect for their deceased relatives by making merit for them on Sart Day.

The word Sart is derived from the Indian word meaning autumn or the fall of the season. Normally, the Sart Thai festival falls on the end of the tenth lunar month, usually some time during September.

A specialty during the Sart Thai festival is Krayasart which is a sweet dessert, prepared from rice, peanuts, sesame seeds and sugar or honey. All those ingredients are boiled into a sticky paste and then wrapped in banana leaf. Every family in Thailand used to prepare their own Krayasart in the past, but now krayasart is available in most Thai markets and supermarkets.

Usually, on this day, Thai people offer Krayasart to the monks in the temple and also offer the sweet to their relatives, friends, and neighbors as a sign of respect.

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