Category Archives: Traditions

Year of the Rat 2008 Pattaya

February 8, 2008 – 2:26 pm

“You are not dragon. Thai zodiac not have dragon. You are dog.” Mint refused to believe my Chinese celestial sign was a dragon. “I was born 1952.” I calculated my birth year in the Buddhist calendar. ”Thai year is 2496.” “Not same Thai year. Thai year start Songkran.” Their new year signaled the end of the […]

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Thailand celebrates King’s 80th Birthday.

December 5, 2007 – 11:50 pm

Yesterday Thailand showed its respect for the King with an emotional celebration of the revered monarch’s 80th birthday. The highlight of the day was the early evening’s majestic motorcade to his Bangkok Palace. Millions of his adoring subjects lined the broad avenues decorated with celestial light displays. The King and Queen sat in the back of the […]

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Loy Krathong Ka-toey Pattaya

November 23, 2007 – 11:59 pm

I was born in 1952. Doctors during that prehistoric period had no way of predicting an infant’s sex, however my mother was so convinced that her second child would be a girl that a year’s worth of pretty pink baby clothing lay neatly stacked in a crib. i imagine she experienced a more than a little disappointment […]

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Thai Ploughing Day

May 9, 2007 – 11:19 pm

May 10 is Ploughing Day. This venerated Brahmin ritual has links with Buddhist tradition and requires a royal minister to feed two Sacred Cows in Sanam Luang. The future is predicted according to whether Prakho Therd and Phrakho Thoon (Name of the cows) eat rice paddy, maize, green bean, sesame, hard liquor, water or grass. A repast of paddy […]

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Jatukam Ramathep Amulet Craze

May 9, 2007 – 10:34 pm

My superstitious Irish heritage was reinforced by an upbringing in New England. Witches have hung from Salem trees and ghosts haunted the abandoned farmlands near my suburban Boston home. Now Salem’s occult market reaps millions and the cow pastures have been razed for giant houses. Fat people don’t have time to be scared by the […]

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