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Religious holidays bring two alcohol ban days, three-day weekend
Religious holidays bring two alcohol ban days, three-day weekend
PHUKET: People across Phuket woke today to a 48-hour ban on the sale of alcohol as the nation commemorates the major Buddhist holidays Asarnha Bucha Day and Khao Phansa (Buddhist Lent) this weekend.
Saturday 24 July 2021, 09:00AM
The ban on the sale of alcohol will end at midnight Sunday night (July 25). Image: The Phuket News / file
The auspicious Buddhist holidays Asarnha Bucha Day and Khao Phansa (Buddhist Lent), also called “Vassa”, will be observed today and tomorrow (July 24-25), respectively.
As both are major religious holidays, the sale of alcohol is banned by law across the country on both days. As such, the alcohol ban started at 00:01am today (July 24) and will conclude at midnight Sunday night (23:59pm, July 25).
Buddhist Lent observance (Photo: Thiti Wannamontha)
Starting next Thursday, the Candle Festival in Ubon Ratchathani will be launched to mark Khao Phansa Day, or the first day of the annual Buddhist Lent, which this year falls on July 25 and lasts three months.
Khao Phansa falls a day after Asanha Bucha or Dhamma Day. It was the day that Buddha gave his first teaching after enlightenment to his five followers more than 2,500 years ago. Asanha Bucha Day falls on the Full Moon day of the eighth lunar month, which is July 24 this year.
During Khao Phansa, monks are prohibited from travelling and staying overnight outside their temples so they concentrate more on studying dhamma and practising meditation.