Tradition Visakha Bucha and Kao Phansa Festival - Wat Aphai Thayaram Description: Wat Aphai Thayaram was built during the Ayutthaya period (1350-1767). Visakha Bucha festival at Wat Aphai Thayaram is annually held on the full moon day of the sixth lunar month, which usually falls in May. It commemorates Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing away. Buddhists go to the temple to make offerings in a ritual referred to as merit-making or Tam-boon Tuk-baat, in Thai. It is a ritual where one makes offerings at a temple to increase ones merit followed by listening to a sermon. Then, at 20:00 it is time for the Wien Tien ceremony, which is a candle lit procession, circling clockwise three times around the temple’s principle chapel. The Kao Phansa festival is one of the most important Buddhist festivals signifying the beginning of a three-month study retreat at the monastery. Theravada monks take vows that they will not leave the temple during the period that begins on the new moon at the end of the eight lunar month (in July). The daily activities during the Khao Phansa festival are comprised of making food offering to the monks in the morning, then the monks will give a sermon to the Buddhists with meditation and observing the religious precepts. The Khao Phansa period ends on the full moon of the eleventh lunar month (in October), which is called Wan Awk Pansa. On that day, people will come together and perform Tam-boon Tuk-baat again. Phone: 662 644-4952 to 53 (within Thailand dial 02 instead of 662) Location: Wat Aphai Thayaram, Ratchawithi Road, Thung Phaya Thai ub-District, Ratchathewi District 10400 Bus: 4, 8, 9, 12, 14, 18, 24, 28, 108, 157, 542. By Skytrain: Take Sukhumvit Line and get off at the Victory Monument Station. Click to MAP