Mother’s Day
In Thailand, Mother’s Day is celebrated on August 12, as the
12th is the Queen’s birthday. To celebrate, many businesses put up
beautiful displays of Queen Sirikit, as well as new banners and flags on the
streets. Mother’s Day is one of the biggest holidays in Thailand.
Her Majesty Queen Sirikit
The week before Mother’s Day, I planned activities to do
with my classes to celebrate. For Prathom 3, my co-teacher P’Nii, planned to
make little cards out of paper plates with the students. Prathom 4 can handle a
bit more complex activities, and I have noticed the students love making things
out of origami. So I found a cool idea for a card with origami flowers.
On Thursday, we made our crafts. Observe the below pictures:
The other foreign teachers and myself were told we would be dressed in formal Thai clothes for the Mother’s Day assembly on Friday, August 9th. I will now write a bit about the Thai clothes. Most Thai women are not very curvy... A bag of long skirts were brought up for us to try on and needless to say, none of them fit. I was trying to wiggle into one when I heard a large RIP! So it was not the best few days for our self esteem. But eventually some skirts that fit were found. I had to wear a different skirt, as I was to lay a bouquet in front of a portrait of the Queen. So by fit, I mean I squeezed into my skirt, and couldn’t really do it up at the top. Close enough. But the clothes were beautiful, so it was worth it.
Friday morning, I woke up early to make my hair look pretty.
At school, we put on our clothes, did final hair and makeup touches, then went
down stairs. As usual, we look lots of pictures. All the Thai teachers were
dressed in their best light-blue outfits – light blue being the Queen’s colour.
Everyone looked lovely.
The assembly started around 8. First, the administrators
placed their bouquets in front of the Queen’s portrait. Eventually, we (the
foreign teachers) went up. Mr Wayne and I placed the bouquets, as we had been
at the school the longest. The whole process was a little stressful – we had to
curtsey and look dignified a lot. (the previous afternoon, we had a rehearsal.
It was... ok). This is how it went: walk to stage – curtsey – walk up the
stairs – place bouquet – curtsey – walk off stage. With many, many people. But
it went smoothly! Hooray! After, the marching band played the Royal family’s
anthem – which is an amazingly beautiful song. (They play the song also when
you see a movie in theatres – by the end of it, I either feel like crying or
cheering.) Next was a really neat Thai drumming show – featuring a couple of my
students in P4. It’s customary that drumming also includes traditional dance.
It was very well done – a great performance!
Mr Wayne and myself - we are the most senior foreign teachers (Mr Wayne - 8 years, me - 9 months) so we got to place the boquets
I was really hoping that my skirt WOULDN'T explode
Above ad below photo cred - Amnuayvidhya School
The photo shoot followed the assembly. Naturally.
Mink, Wayne, Deaw, P'May, Me, Krista, Aubin, Taylor, P Aey, Jenny and Mr Brian (head of the English department)
Taylor, Me, Wayne, Dr Srirean (like the principal), Mr Brian, Aubin and Krista
All in all, an interesting holiday to be part of.
No comments:
Post a Comment