October Holidays
This year we celebrated two holidays at the end of October. First, we celebrated Halloween as this is quite a big deal at RIS, although not so much in Thailand. Also, we enjoyed learning about and celebrating a Thai holiday called Loi Krathong that happened to land on Halloween this year.
My school has a tradition of going all out when it comes to Halloween. I’m talking nearly all elementary students dressed up in a costume, a parade of sorts to show off the costumes, and trick-or-treating around campus for Pre-K-Grade 2.
This is very different from what I am used to back in the U.S. public schools. In the states, costumes are seen as a distraction and discouraged due to the diversity of the student population not all families celebrate Halloween. However, now I am working at a private school in Thailand where the students and families are looking to experience Western culture and Thai people enjoy any opportunity to dress up. The celebration at school only consists of costumes and candy, no discussion really about the history and meaning behind Halloween. All these observations are new and taking some adjusting.
After school, the festivities continued in the neighborhood close by the school where there was an evening trick-or-treating event. This neighborhood is home to many RIS teachers as well as Thai families and even teachers from other international schools in the area. It has been awhile since I have been part of trick-or-treating so it was a fun activity to be part of.
We had several bins of candy and passed it ALL out
The night continued to a friend’s Spooky Soiree. I wore my bee costume from the day at school and Eric was a mail man wearing his old USPS uniform. We enjoyed chatting with and meeting more of my coworkers in a relaxed setting.
Our second holiday was a new one to us, Loi Krathong. This can be translated as “to float a basket.” It is a Thai holiday that consists of making and decorating a flower basket with banana leaves and floating it in a river or lake. The tradition has been passed down for hundreds of years and is celebrated on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month of the lunar calendar (that’s a mouthful, I know), therefore the date changes each year. This year it happened to fall on Halloween.
The holiday is an opportunity to thank the Goddess of Water, Ganga, for our water, and to ask forgiveness for harming and polluting it. I find it a bit ironic because the way you celebrate is to put flower baskets made with banana leaves and stems into the water (which is somewhat littering), although the thought behind it is meaningful. There are also krathongs made of bread that the fish eat and are a bit more biodegradable. It is also a chance to send out the bad luck and negativity in your life into your flower basket and wish for good luck and fortune.
Our friend and Thai tutor, Sunny, was gracious enough to gather the materials for a group of us to make our own krathongs this year. We needed flowers, banana leaves, a slice of a banana tree trunk, a candle and three sticks of incense for each krathong.
The yellow marigold flowers which the name for them in Thai translates to “shining star”. It’s a symbol of joy of life and prosperity.
The purple globe amaranth flowers that are a symbol of long life. The name translates from Thai to “blooming without wilting.”
The candle is a traditional symbol used in prayer and is included in this tradition as well.
The incense represents the Buddha, his teaching, and the monastic order.
After a quick tutorial about how to fold the leaves we were left to explore and design as we wished. Link here with video of how to make a krathong.
You can also purchase krathongs from a variety of street vendors near the lake, but this year we opted to make our own. It was fun to see all the different designs from the local Thai vendors. However, the process of hand making our krathongs definitely makes the holiday more meaningful and special.
Later in the evening we went to a restaurant in our neighborhood called Ruen Ros that is on a lake where we could release our krathongs into the water that night. They had a lovely event with musicians and dancers to help celebrate Loi Krathong. It was beautiful to listen to the ancient poems recited and the reenactments the dancers performed that portrayed the stories of Loi Krathong. We learned from Sunny that ancient poems are recited in a way that sounds like singing to our ear but in fact it is the way Thai people recite these ancient texts.
At the end of the night we took our krathongs down to the water and released them into the lake after making a wish and hoping for good fortune.
Despite the newness and adjustment to how we celebrate the holidays here in Thailand and RIS we are happy to be starting new traditions and learning about Thai culture and history.
