"..that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned.. I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.”
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Wedding crashers: Thai style!
Yesterday was a big day! One of the foreign teachers at my school, David,
married Eve, the head assistant teacher in the English Program. This was a long awaited marriage with
an engagement of five years. The
wedding took place at Eve’s parents house. It was a traditional Thai wedding. Here are a few odd facts:
-When we arrived at 8:00 in the morning they started serving
beer, whiskey, and seafood dishes.
-The ceremony itself started shortly after everyone arrived and
started eating. We were ushered
into the street where they did a “parade” to bring the groom to the house. David had to “fight” to get into the
house to see Eve. The entire time
there was a strange call and response going on between the "morning announcements lady" from
our school with her microphone and the rest of the guests at the wedding. **NOTE** the "morning announcements lady" is of no relation blood or otherwise to the bride or groom. At Thai weddings you invite who you know by status to the weddings and they are not always the people you would want to invite. This woman is of higher status at the school than either David or Eve so she was invited. She also loves to talk into a microphone which I assume is why she was given that duty at the wedding.
-Once David “fought” his way in there were two options for the
guests: either go inside the house to watch the ceremony or sit outside and
continue to eat and drink.
Since this was my first-and most likely only-Thai wedding, I chose to do the first of the two. However, the number of guests who stayed outside to drink was astounding. I guess most Thais have been to enough Thai wedding ceremonies in their lifetime.
The ceremony itself was beautiful. Unfortunately, the entire
ceremony was in Thai so I am not entirely sure what was going on the whole time. There was a monk who
conducted the ceremony and everyone was invited up to give their blessing to
the newly weds. Here are some
photos from the wedding ceremony and reception.
David and Eve. Eve is dressed in a traditional western dress in this picture, but there was no traditional western wedding ceremony.
Everyone was invited to sprinkle a hand-full of these seed-type grains onto this heart shaped box with over ten-thousand baht fanned out around it. This money is the Dowry given to the brides family by the groom. Needless to say, the honeymoon will not be as extravagant as they might like it to be.
This is Eve and her mother. This was her entrance to the ceremony. This seems somewhat similar to the father walking the bride down the aisle.
David was putting necklace after necklace over Eve's head. I think there were three of four in total.
This picture is quite comedic. The item this woman is carrying in this picture is the heart box and money wrapped up in cloth. She was carrying it as though it weighed over fifty pounds. Not sure who she was or why she was doing what she was doing. It was funny to watch though!
Cupids! Not cheesy at all!
The monk praying.
If you look closely there is string that was passed around the entire room. Everyone was holding onto it while the monk prayed.
All the guests were invited to tie a string onto the bride and grooms wrist. Some had money attached to them. The bride and groom are not allowed to cut these strings off. They must fall off or be pulled off over the hand.
I have packed one box of books to put into storage, I have not picked out anything I am bringing to Thailand, my room is a mess with suitcases and laundry thrown everywhere, and I leave in 4 days. So of course, instead of packing or cleaning or moving, I decide to start my blog. I hope to keep up to date on the adventures I have in Thailand, although I cannot promise anything. But as of now, it is time to get my act together and get things in order for my departure on Thursday. Next time I write it will be from Thailand!
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