BANGKOK, Feb 17 — Like previous years, Thais of Chinese descent nationwide are celebrating the Chinese New Year Festival 2015, starting today with last-minute shopping for food, fruit and other necessities to be used for worshiping the Chinese Gods and their family ancestors tomorrow.
In many areas in Bangkok and upcountry, fruits, especially those signifying good luck, have become best sellers, shoring up their prices by 20-50 baht per kilo.
In Hat Yai, Thailand's southern business centre, people were shopping for ceremonial worship offerings, while workers were cleaning up shrines and making other preparations for public worship for local and international visitors, most of them of Chinese origin, tomorrow.
In Yala province on the Malaysian border, residents of Chinese descent were also busy shopping for consumer products for worship amid tightened security provided by police, military and even volunteer guards.
The ongoing Chinese New Year Festival is also boosting trade at Thai border areas, as people of Chinese descent in neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, Myanmar and even Vietnam, were crossing the border to buy food, fruit and other products for worship as well.
In Chanthaburi province in Thailand's eastern region bordering Cambodia, for instance, the Thai-Khmer border trade and tourism association reported that trade was particularly active in Soi Dao and Pong Nam Ron Districts, boosting the prices of products by about 30 per cent. (MCOT online news)
