Red Cloth Parade
The annual Temple Fair in Samut Prakan kicked off early this morning with the parade through town. The fair at Phra Samut Chedi has been going on now for 184 years which I believe makes it the longest running temple fair in Thailand. Certainly one of the oldest. In the olden days, people would come down from Bangkok by boat. Back then, this temple used to be in the middle of the river. These days it is now on the West Bank but the fair is still as popular. Leading the parade was the sacred red cloth which will later be wrapped around the pagoda in an important ceremony.
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The opening ceremony early this morning was presided over by Mr. Cherdsak Choosri, the Governor of Samut Prakan Province. Once the nine monks had blessed everyone taking part in the ceremony, the parade through the town started. This was led by a float carrying the sacred red cloth. Following behind were numerous marching bands and also local schools and other organizations.
The parade went on a circular route through the town as far as Taiban Circle and then back via the market. The float carrying the red cloth came back at a time when we still couldn’t see the end of the parade.At the waterfront, a boat was waiting to take the red cloth upriver to Phra Pradaeng. In this city they had a smaller parade for the red cloth before it was taken on its last journey by truck to Phra Samut Chedi.
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