Royal Ploughing Ceremony to forecast harvest on Friday
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony is an ancient royal tradition observed in Thailand every year to mark the start of the rice-growing season.
The date for the ceremony falls on May 13 (Friday) this year and will be held at Sanam Luang in Bangkok’s Phra Nakhon district as usual.
This ancient tradition, which dates back over 700 years in Thailand and was discontinued in the 1920s, was revived in the 1960s by King Rama IX.
The ceremony is held every year to forecast the rice harvest and whether the country will have abundant supplies of food. The event starts with two sacred oxen being hitched to a wooden plough and led by officials in ceremonial dress to plough a furrow. As the furrow is ploughed, the court Brahmins scatter rice to symbolise the start of the growing season.
The oxen are then offered different kinds of food, including rice, corn, green beans, sesame, freshly cut grass, water and rice wine, and the harvest is predicted based on what the oxen choose.
Meanwhile, the Rice Department has been granted 1.7 tonnes of rice seeds by His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn for distribution among farmers. The seeds are of six species, and the department has 245kg of Jasmine 105, 399kg of Pathum Thani 1, 125kg of Kor Khor 43, 70kg of Kor Khor 6, 300kg of Kor Khor 87 and 589kg of Kor Khor 85.
To curb the risk of Covid-19 infections, those interested in receiving the seeds can scan the QR code below or register via https://rice.moac.go.th/.
Each applicant is entitled to two bags and they can be picked up at provincial or district agricultural offices from Friday.