Sat Thai (, ; 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. The Indianized elements of Sat Thai are influenced by the Khmer culture.
Etymology Sat ( or , RTGS sat) comes from Pali , which means 'autumnal'.Turner: page 718, śāradá 12402 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 Thai lunar calendar Moon 10, that is, waning day 15, evening (). This is a New Moon and so is a Buddhist Sabbath; but not one of the Special Sabbaths, and not one of the secular public holidays in Thailand. It occurs midway past the traditional Thai New Year and near the autumnal equinox. It an occasion for making merit by honoring ( buucha) the spirits of the season, as well as one's deceased relatives, according to local tradition, with various rites and ceremonies.
Beginning of the Vegetarian Festival
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, ) — kin-che () is to vow in the manner of Vietnamese or Chinese Buddhists to eat a strict vegetarian diet.Online Royal Institute Dictionary
See also Mid-Autumn Festival Lughnasadh, a Celtic festival with many similar traditions Sat Duan Sip
References