PUBLISHED : 21 Aug 2023 at 04:30
Tens of thousands of people joined an annual alms-offering ceremony in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district, which resumed yesterday after a three-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The activity began at 6am with 10,000 monks from 14 southern provinces, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia walking along the 500-metre Niphat-uthit road in downtown Hat Yai to collect offerings of dried food.
The donated items would be distributed to the monastic community, teachers and soldiers and those in need in the three southernmost provinces and four districts of Songkhla.
Witthaya sae Lim, one of the event’s coordinators, said the alms-giving ceremony has attracted attention from tourists from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan.
He said the annual merit-making event is a must-see event for visitors to Hat Yai and more than 20,000 visitors are thought to have taken part.
He said the alms-giving ceremony also stimulated the local economy with at least 180 million baht changing hands in tourism-related businesses yesterday.
Mr Witthaya said the participants also joined a charity project to set free 64 cattle targeted for slaughter, adding the animals would be given to farmers.
Cash donations would be also handed over to support activities of monks, teachers, troops and people with disabilities in the restive region, he added.
The alms-giving ceremony, the 20th of its kind, was jointly held by the Fourth Army, Nakhon Hat Yai municipality, the monastic community and the private sector in Hat Yai.