Well, it’s the end of another calendar year here in Bangkok. I can tell by all the calendars arriving in the mail.

In Thailand, this is the second most important of three new years celebrated throughout the year. The most important is the Thai new year known as Songkran, celebrated as a water festival in April with a bit of mayhem. For this holiday, Thais get three days off work, not including any weekends, so it often ends up as a five day celebration.

The ‘western’ new year is celebrated along with most of the rest of the world. Both 31 December and 1 January are public holidays. In Bangkok, the biggest celebration is held in front of the World Trade Center shopping mall, in the heart of Bangkok’s main shopping area. There is a stage show and fireworks, and the whole area is packed with people. Many people have commented that the place is so crowded that they didn’t really enjoy the event. Of course, it should go without saying that you shouldn’t even think of going there by any means other than the Skytrain. It will be very crowded as well, but at least it will get there in a short period of time, while a taxi or private car could well be stuck in traffic for hours.

The western new year is also a time of gift-giving for Thais. I suspect this is a parroting of the western Christmas tradition, rather than a home grown cultural thing. The gifting practice is especially strong in business, where almost every company makes it a practice of providing gifts to their customers. Common gifts include calendars, of course, as well as business diaries, desk clocks and other office related merchandise. Businesses will also almost always have an office party - with exchange of gifts - around this time of year as well. Office parties are generally held at large restaurants.

The last of the three new years celebrated in Thailand is the Chinese New Year, which next falls on 30 January 2006. Although some business offices do close on this day, it is not a national holiday.