Many visit Bangkok because it's renowned for its bargain shopping opportunities and entertainment and nightlife scene. But, if you are planning to visit Bangkok around April or May, check the events calendar to find out if the Royal Ploughing Ceremony is scheduled during your stay in the city. The ceremony is meant to provide an auspicious start to the rice planting season, which is also supposed to give a promising harvest. An ancient Brahmanic ceremony, it requires several religious rituals and the farmers involved must plant each seed by hand for the ceremony to be effective. Although it's a very ancient practice meant to please the Gods of the Harvest, during the path of history, several Buddhist elements were also added to it.

His Majesty the King presides over the annual ceremony and it takes place at the designated Ceremonial Field located at the Sanam Luang Grounds in Bangkok. The grains used for the ceremony are brought in from the Chitralada Farm, which is an experimental rice field. The experiments are carried out to cultivate rich harvests and allow crop rotation for diversity. Varied chemical and organic fertilizer formulas are used in this rice field. The Royal Ploughing Ceremony in Bangkok is also used as a platform to award outstanding regional farmers with awards and certificates by the King. As part of the ceremony, farmers obtain some seeds from the ceremonial procedure to mix with their own grains for auspicious planting in their own rice fields.

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony begins early in the morning, but not at dawn. There's an appointed Lord of the Ploughing Ceremony, referred to as the Phraya Raekna. The rituals may seem strange to an outsider, as it involves collecting pieces of cloth from tree branches and predicting quality of crops to be expected, as well as asking oxen about what can be expected during this planting season.

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