Merry (Belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

I'd like to wish you a very (belated) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Thailand!

This was my first holiday away from home, but it sure was a memorable one. To be honest, it didn't really "feel" much like Christmas this year. After giving it some thought, I pinpointed it to two main reasons.

First, I feel like the weather in Thailand is always giving me a false sense of the time of year. Growing up in the US, it's obvious that I associate Christmas with snow, cold weather, hot chocolate, sitting by the fire, baking Christmas cookies, ice skating, building snowmen, etc. However, Christmas here was quite the opposite...hot. The thought of drinking hot chocolate or sitting by a fire was really the last thing on my mind. The entire month of December was around 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit everyday and yes, this is actually considered "winter" here in Thailand. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the warm weather after experiencing many brutal Chicago winters; nonetheless, cold weather and Christmas just go together in my mind and that won't ever change.

Second, it's hard to remember Christmas is around the corner when you aren't constantly being reminded about it. In the US, basically everywhere you go in the month of December (and usually November too) there are signs of Christmas everywhere. For example, Christmas songs on repeat on the radio, almost every single commercial and advertisement on TV,  booklets of sales and coupons in the newspaper, decorations at the store, special Christmas themed drinks at Starbucks, Christmas movies playing on TV, Christmas trees lit up in every house on the block, Christmas office parties at work, Santa at the mall, and simply everyone talking about Christmas plans and gifts. Well, imagine taking ALL of that away and that's what December in Thailand was like. Bangkok as a more westernized city had some decorations but aside from some colored tinsel I saw at a store, there were very few signs of Christmas where I live.

Because about 95% of Thai people are Buddhist, Christmas is not really celebrated here. In fact, only .05% of the population identifies as Christian. However, any Thai person will probably tell you that they love Christmas. I personally think that's because Thai people just like to have fun celebrations regardless of what event it is. Also, Christmas is a normal working day so everyone (including myself) works on December 25th since it's not a Thai national holiday. At first, I thought it would be quite odd to have a normal teaching day on Christmas. However, the Thai teachers explained that classes were canceled for the day and asked the foreign teachers to help plan a Christmas assembly for the morning.

Working with the other teachers in the Foreign Language Department, we started the morning by saying and spelling out "Merry Christmas" in English, Chinese, and Japanese (the three foreign languages our school offers). 

My co-worker Chris, from Scotland, used one of his M3 classes and directed a nativity play to help the students understand the meaning and reason behind Christmas.

I was responsible for teaching the entire school a Christmas song and having everyone sing together.  I opted to use "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" because it is a fairly recognizable song and the lyrics are pretty simple. I'm definitely not the greatest singer, so I was not about to sing alone in front of 2000+ people. Therefore, I involved the students and asked my M 5/2 class to be Christmas carolers and teach the other students during the assembly. This is a great class and they were excited to help. I spent an entire class period teaching them the lyrics, assigning specific spots to stand, practicing, and trying to explain what figgy pudding is (does anyone actually eat that!?).  While I had confidence in these students, I was still a little nervous that 50 teenagers would all remember to show up when the time came. However, when I arrived, the entire class was in the exact meeting spot, already lined up and sitting in their assigned spots. I love these kids :)

After a successful "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" I had a quick costume change for my next assignment. I was under the impression that I would make an appearance as Mrs. Claus, but I quickly learned that in Thailand everyone apparently refers to a female version of Santa as "Santy." So I was "Santy" and my co-worker Howard, from California, was Santa and we were driven into school on a tuk-tuk (as our sleigh) lead by nine adorable M4 students as our reindeer. I know what you're probably thinking, but we couldn't find any reindeer antlers, so the devil horns just had to make do, okay? The students seemed to really enjoy this skit, especially the candy we delivered!

The next few hours of the day were allotted for students to play organized games like pin the tail on Rudolph and musical chairs. I enjoyed just walking around and chatting with the students. And of course, what would be a celebration in Thailand without a Thai pop concert? Yep, the day ended with a concert in the gymnasium where the students jumped around dancing and smiling as teenagers do.

Overall, it was interesting to experience Christmas from a culture that doesn't really celebrate it.  New Years, on the other hand, was a pretty big deal in Thailand. We were given News Years Eve and New Years Day off school and almost all of the restaurants and shops were closed. Also, everyone exchanges gifts like we would for Christmas. I enjoyed how festive New Years was here and walked around saying "Sawadee Pi Mai Ka" (Happy New Year in Thai) to almost everyone I passed which was always greeted with a big smile.

I asked my students and Thai teachers where the best place was to go for New Years Eve and most told me Central World in Bangkok. From the sound of it, it seemed like it would be a Thai version of Times Square in New York City where tons of people gather for a big countdown at midnight. I actually went to see the ball drop in Times Square two years ago, and aside from the crowds, this wasn't very similar at all. In New York City, I was freezing and had to stand outside for 10 hours. In Bangkok, I was hot and sweaty and just showed up at 10:30 PM and got a pretty good view of the stage. Therefore, there was definitely much less hype leading up to midnight, but it was still fun and there were many famous (so I'm told) Thai pop singers performing. Again, like I said, Thai pop concerts and celebrations just go hand in hand in Thailand. 

The big question I was wondering all night was whether the countdown at midnight would be said in Thai or in English. I was almost positive it would be in Thai and I even practiced in my head counting from 10 to 0 in Thai. However, I was surprised that the countdown was actually in English! The fireworks at midnight were also probably better than any 4th of July fireworks I've ever seen in my life. My other observations of the night were that the whole kissing at midnight thing isn't a tradition here and I didn't see one piece of confetti.

I'm looking forward to see what 2013 in Thailand brings.

Sawadee pi mai ka! :)

Happy Loy Krathong!

While I have to admit that my Thanksgiving holiday here in Thailand was extremely boring and uneventful, on the bright side, I have the perk of experiencing the excitement of Thai holidays. And if I've learned one thing after my first official Thai holiday, it's that Thai people LOVE holidays and love to go all out for them.

This past Wednesday was Loy Krathong, one of the biggest, most popular, and beautiful festivals in Thailand. Lucky for me, Ayutthaya, the city I live in, is said to be one of the top four spots to celebrate this holiday in Thailand.

Loy Krathong always falls on the full moon of the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar, or usually in November. The festival is held to pay homage to the goddess of rivers and waterways, Mae Nam. This is the time when Thai people give thanks to the river for their use of water and ask forgiveness in the ensuing pollution. "Loy" literally translates to "float", while "Krathong" is the Thai word for the lottus, blossum-shaped tray made out of banana leaves. The main tradition associated with Loy Krathong is that people celebrate by floating elaborate krathongs decorated with flowers, candles, and incense on any waterway in Thailand. To be even more environmentally friendly, some krathongs are made out of bread or coconuts for the fish to eat. I even saw some people getting really creative and making krathongs out of Ritz crackers. Most Thai people make their own krathongs at home and bring them to the celebration but I bought mine at the festival from a vendor on the streetl. It felt like I was carrying around a heavy birthday cake though.

Photo credit: Erin Deren

From the moment I walked on to campus this day, I could just feel the holiday excitement in the air. Many of my M1 (12-13 year old) students ran up to me before school to show me their beautiful krathongs that they made. Some of them were truly impressive. It was fun to see how excited the kids were for this holiday. There's also a pond at my school where students constructed a gigantic krathong in the middle. It was awesome!

Loy Krathong offers a unique occasion to celebrate. It's the perfect time for people to make a wish and ask for good luck as you place your krathong in the water and push it away. Thais look to the future as they essentially "float away" bad things and misfortune through their floral offerings in the water. The lyrics of the Loy Krathong song include, "As we push away, we pray we can see a better day."

Myth has it that if your krathong floats far away into the distance until out of sight without the candle blowing out, then you will have good luck for the coming year. Some of the Thai teachers at my school told me that it's common to put clippings of your hair and fingernails in your krathong to represent getting rid of bad parts of yourself. As it turned out, I got out of work early this day and was planning to get my haircut anyway, so I asked the hairdresser to keep my dead end hair clippings to add to my krathong. At home, that would probably be a super weird request, but here the lady thought it was fantastic! I was also told it's common to put a few small coins in your krathong as a small offering but to not be surprised if I saw young boys swimming in the river collecting all the coins for themselves. Sure enough, the river boys were there.

While the lantern festival is famous up north in Chiang Mai, there was still a few places to buy lanterns to release in Ayutthaya. A few of my friends bought and released lanterns into the sky. I preferred to stay away from the fire and took pictures instead. It was such a cool sight to see so many lanterns in the sky, but I was a little nervous their lantern was going to hit a tree...

Aside from tons of food and drink stands, some of the traditional festivities include music concerts, fireworks, beauty competitions, krathong making contests, and cultural performances. There was also an entire carnival with shops, games, rides, and of course gigantic stuffed animals as prizes. The warm weather and large amounts of fireworks going off all night kind of reminded me of the 4th of July.

I absolutely loved this holiday! I hope I get the chance to celebrate a few more Loy Krathongs in my lifetime. My only complaint? Loy Krathong isn't an official public holiday and despite the late night festivities, we didn't have off work the next day...