Another Phuket festival showcases the island’s traditional clothing

Another Phuket seafood festival, but this time, there’s a unique new feature! From Friday until Saturday night, officials in Kathu district Phuket organised the ‘Suk Jai Naithu’ festival. The festival included a parade of people dressed in colourful, elaborate costumes. These costumes are the traditional clothing of Phuket. ‘Suk Jai Nathu’ means ‘Happy Naithu’.

Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pitsuwan and the mayor of Kathu were there to launch the festival. It opened with the parade, and there were also many seafood stalls and local shows on five stages. As with the other two seafood festivals organised this year in Phuket, the Suk Jai Naithu aimed to bring back tourism to the area where it was held.

The Phuket Express reported, however, that Suk Jai Naithu also aimed to display the ‘traditional ways’ of the original Phuket people which started from the ‘Naithu’ community. Naithu is Kathu’s old name, many locals still call it Naithu to this day.

Phuket has a rich trading history as a hub of east-west trading between China and Europe, then as a tin-mine. The Chinese influence is strong in Phuket culture, including ‘Peranakans’, Straits-borne Chinese who were born along the Mallaca Strait including from Singapore, Mallaca, Penang and Phuket. The island’s annual festivals, especially the Vegetarian Festival, are steeped in Chinese tradition.

Two seafood festivals held in Phuket this past year were the Roi Rim Lay festival on Nai Yang Beach, and Tastival at Saphan Hin, the huge public park on the east coast of the island. Meanwhile just this weekend, Pattaya also held a seafood festival called the ‘Squid Fair‘ in front of the Terminal 21 Pattaya shopping centre. With several well known seafood vendors all gathered together in one spot in front of the popular shopping zone, customers can enjoy a nice variety, particularly a variety of squid.

SOURCE: The Phuket Express