Thursday, August 11, 2005

Today is Mother's Day

Today is a national holiday in Thailand. It's Mother's Day! The Thais make much more of Mother's Day and Father's Day than they do in the States, where it's just marketed to buying stuff. Here, these holidays revolve around royalty. The celebration of Mother's Day happens on Her Majesty the Queen's birthday, which is today, August 12, and Father's Day is on His Majesty the King's birthday on December 5.

All around the country you would find huge portraits of the Queen, mostly when she was still younger and beautiful, along with blue flags bearing her insignia. The portraits are displayed with flowers, lights and the other items you see in the photos below.

In my family, we celebrated Mother's Day by showing Mom how much we appreciate her. We clean the house, treat her to a massage (done by one of us kids), and cook breakfast, lunch and dinner AND clean the messes from that.

Here in Thailand, according to DH, the kids use this time as kind of a confessional to Mom. They confess to her all the things they did that year and ask for her forgiveness. In schools the day before, mothers would come to a special assembly and the kids would put on a performance. Then each child would have a small gift that he or she made for Mom and the mothers would go up on stage, grade by grade and their child would present the gift to the mother and wai (hold hands together in a namaste or prayer like way). It's very ceremonious and touching.

Here is an example of the portrait display at our condo entrance. It's a rather simple one in comparison to most others around Thailand, but it gives the reader an idea:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well happy mothers's day!!!!

Crunchy Domestic Goddess said...

Wow, sounds like the Thais know how to treat their moms! Though I'm not sure I'd get all that excited about the confessionals. That part is kinda funny.
"Mom, here's all the bad crap I've done over the past year. Oh, and I love you." hehe.

Happy Mother's Day, mama!

Mel said...

Yes, Happy first Mother's Day Aima! :D

Rambler said...

one day out of 365 days to say thankyou to ur mom is not enuf. but it is a start. we shud all take a lesson and surprise our moms with lil gifts and cards and hugs... every so often :)