Setting the stage for a year of abundance and prosperity for the kingdom and its people, Thailand’s royal soothsayer Thursday predicted a year of ample crops and rainfall in the Royal Ploughing Ceremony to herald the beginning of the rains and rice-growing season.After ploughing a symbolic furrow around Sanam Luang, the royal parade ground in front of Bangkok’s golden-spired Grand Palace, the team of oxen were offered seven kinds of food including rice, corn, green beans, sesame seeds, alcohol, water and grass.The sacred oxen ate rice, corn and grass as the royal soothsayer predicted that Thailand would have a year of plentiful crops and sufficient water.

– More on this year’s royal ploughing ceremony can be found at, “Abundant crops expected in Thailand in 2007“, MCOT News, 10 May 2007.