Phuket sets dates and venues for PorTor Festival
Phuket’s PorTor Festival will run from Aug 25 to Sept 10 at shrines, markets and community venues across Phuket Town, featuring traditional ceremonies and the offering of red turtle-shaped Ang Ku cakes.
Phuket’s PorTor Festival will be held from Aug 25 to Sept 10 at shrines, markets and community venues across Phuket Town, according to the municipality.
The festival is one of Phuket’s most important Chinese cultural events. It honours ancestors and wandering spirits and reflects the values of filial piety and respect associated with the island’s Thai-Chinese heritage. Residents and visitors can take part in traditional merit-making ceremonies and witness rituals passed down through generations.
This year’s programme includes a PorTor ceremony at Talat Yai and the Phuket Thai Hua Museum on Krabi Road on Aug 25; events at Hok Nguan Kong Shrine at Surin Circle on Aug 27 and Cho Ong Shrine on Krabi Road on Aug 28; and activities at Public Market 1, also known as Baan San Market, on Ranong Road from Aug 29-30.
The Seng Tek Beow Kuan Yin Tai Si Shrine in Bang Neow will host events from Aug 31 to Sept 10. Further ceremonies are scheduled at the Kian Tek Pho Chinese Association at the Phuket Thai Hua Museum on Sept 1 and at the Ao Ke Community near Takua Pa Road on Sept 2.
The festival takes place during the seventh lunar month, when Chinese tradition holds that the gates of the underworld open and ancestors and wandering spirits can return to the world of the living. Families make offerings of food, incense and ceremonial paper items to honour their ancestors and offer food to spirits with no descendants, in the belief that this will bring good fortune and protection.
One of the festival’s best-known traditions is the offering of Ang Ku, red turtle-shaped cakes made from glutinous rice flour and traditionally filled with sweet bean paste. The cakes symbolise longevity, good fortune and gratitude towards ancestors and have become a signature attraction of the celebration.
The municipality said the festival gives visitors an opportunity to experience one of Phuket’s oldest and most distinctive cultural traditions while helping preserve the heritage of the island’s Thai-Chinese community. The event attracts thousands of residents and tourists each year.
