Phuket Immigration has posted a notice confirming its closure for the public holidays in May.
The office will be closed for Coronation Day substitution holiday on Monday, May 5, and for Royal Plowing Ceremony Day on Friday, May 9.
The office will also be closed on Monday, May 12, for the Visakha Bucha Day substitution holiday.
Coronation Day, or Wan Chatra Mongkol, is a yearly celebration in Thailand to honour the King’s coronation. Commemorated on May 4, the holiday marks the day King Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) was officially crowned in 2019.
This year, the holiday falls on Sunday, with a substitution holiday on Monday. The day is commemorated with ceremonies honouring King Vajiralongkorn and the Royal Family.
All government offices will also be closed on Friday, May 9, for Royal Plowing Ceremony Day. Known in Thai as ‘Raek Na Khwan’ or ‘Phra Ratcha Phithi Charot Phra Nangkhan Raek Na Khwan’, the ceremony is a Thai royal tradition held to mark the start of the rice-growing season.
All government offices on the island also will be closed on Monday, May 12, for the Visakha Bucha Day substitution holiday.
Visakha Bucha Day, a major Buddhist holiday in Thailand, is celebrated on the full moon of the sixth lunar month. This year it will be observed on Sunday, May 11.
Although the government is reviewing the law, Visakha Bucha Day currently remains one of five specific Thai Buddhist religious days ‒ Makha Bucha, Visakha Bucha, Asarnha Bucha Day, Khao Pansa and Wan Org Pansa ‒ during which the sale of alcohol is prohibited by law.
As such, all shops, bars and restaurants are barred from selling alcohol for the 24 hours ‒ from midnight to midnight ‒ of Sunday, May 11.