Songkran
Anybody still reading this? If so drop me a line at garyshall@aol.com. I know it's been slow.

We're in the home stretch of the Songkran (Thai New Year) holiday here, one of two really big festivals in the Thai calendar. Officially, Songkran last 3 days (April 12-14). Unoffically it pretty much lasts week. Depends where you are, it seems. Chiang Mai is famous for a very extended Songkran.

Undoubtedly, Songkran has a deep subtle meaning for the Thai people. The really visible manifestation, though, is throwing water on each other. I heard stories about this had made me a little bit leery. Apparently, in some places this thing gets out of hand and goes beyond the good-natured fun and mutual blessing that I think is the original root, and becomes an expression of repressed hostility. And everyone urged me not to ride a motorcycle at that time, as every year a certain number of riders are killed by badly time splashes of water.

For me, the best part of Songkran came before the actual holiday. On Friday last, my landlord Wisut came to see me in the morning and invited me to a "ceremony" at his wife's office. This turned out to be somewhat in the nature of an office party, but was very interesting and sweet.

Atya heads up the local district office of the central government's continuing education department, known as Non-Formal Education. I've spent a fair amount of time with them since I came here, both as a student (Thai) and as a teacher (English). Apparently, I've been accepted as part of the family by the staff (made up mostly of attractive women), as they decided I was an appropriate person to pay respects to for Songkran.

When we arrived at the office (actually it's the local library, something else that Non-Formal Education does), a row of chairs had been set up in the middle of the room. In front of each was a silver bowl with a little water scented with flower petals in it. Myself, Wistu, Atya, and a couple of other "elders" (which included a guy apparently in his early thirties) were seated in the chairs, and each of us was given a small, but really lovely garland of flowers of a kind I've generally seen on the altars of Buddhist temples. These had a wonderful smell.

Then the other members of the staff formed a line, and came down the line of chairs in turn, pouring water with a smaller silver bowl as we held the flower garlands with our hands over our larger bowls. This was not at all a solemn matter, being accompanied by a lot of laughter, smiles, and chatter. Wisut , next to me, took it on himself to be the jokester, and kept up a lively exchange with the participants. I have no idea what he was saying (my Thai's not that good yet), but it kept everyone in stitches.

Having been made a little paranoid, I arranged to go out of town, to a small beach resort near Khao Sam Roi Yot (see previous post), for the main part of Songkran. Unfortunately, the friends I planned to go with had to cancel at the last minute because of a family get together. Apparently, this sort of thing is a part of the season for a lot of Thais.

The bungalow I rented was lovely, the beach and scenery were great.
- posted by Gary @ 12:58 AM (0) comments