Thai lunar calendar

The Thai lunar calendar does not mark the beginning of a new year when it starts a new 1-to-12 count, which occurs most frequently in December.

Should the holidays fall on a weekend, it also accommodates these as well as some of the principal lunar festivals with a compensatory day off (Thai: วันชดเชย, RTGS: wan chotchoei).

As in other Buddhist calendars, these months have names that derive from Sanskrit, but for the most part are only known by Thai astrologers.

The Thai lunar calendar approximates this interval with "normal-month" pairs (ปกติมาส, RTGS: pakatimat) that are alternately 29 and 30 days long.

Months divide into two periods designated by whether they are waxing or waning: A week is called Sapda/Sappada (Thai: สัปดาห์, [sàp.dāː, sàp.pà.dāː]).

The term is defined by the Royal Institute Dictionary (RID) as a 7-day period beginning on Sunday and ending Saturday.

[7] When referring to lunations, however, it is the 7-, 8- or (rarely) 9-day interval between quartile lunar phases; that is, from one wan phra (วันพระ) to the next.

While solar-calendar weekdays have names, lunar-calendar days number sequentially from 1 to 14 or 15 in two segments depending on whether the moon is waxing or waning.

Festivals or fairs are called เทศกาล; these may be further styled as ประเพณี "traditional" and as Thai: พิธี, "rite" or "ceremony".

Notes: Thai orthography spells most native words phonetically, though there is no definitive system for transcription into Roman letters.

Entered below in order of first appearance, these vocabulary entries are in this pattern: Literally means "well done", "polished","cultured" or "perfected" in a modern usage (which implies the language of cultured persons); Sanskrit alphabet, language, writing; [presumed] compound of