Yesterday was H.M. Queen Sirikit’s 81st birthday. All over Thailand, pictures of her were spruced up and put on prominent display, if they weren’t already. Because the queen was born on a Friday, her color is light blue according to Thai traditions, and so light blue bunting and flags were also strewn up around the country.
The queen’s birthday is a national holiday and is also celebrated as Mother’s Day. There are celebrations at school and at the local government offices and temples that give everyone a chance to honor their mother. I took advantage of the long weekend for a chance to go on bpai tiao to Nong Khai, which I will write about on Friday and you saw a bit of in my Mekong River Time Lapse, so I did not see what my village did. But I did go to the school celebration on Friday.
All of the children’s mothers who were in the village (as many parents work in Bangkok or other large cities) came to school and gathered in the auditorium. As the attendees came in they could admire some of the students’ artwork depicting the things that mothers do for their kids.
Once the program began, the students sat on the floor in front of the moms all seated on chairs. There was the requisite Buddhist chant and lighting of incense and then there was the singing of what I assume is the queen’s song. Some students presented things to an altar with the queen’s picture next to it. There was recognition of some students, three from each grade, and they each received a prize. Then there was the recognition of some of the mothers and they received framed certificates.
Finally there was the student performances. The kindergartners did a dance to a fun song which was very cute. After the little ones performed, the some of the sixth grade girls performed a traditional Thai dance, which was very lovely. Finally, the event ended with the sixth graders that did not do the traditional dance performed a skit of some of the things that mothers do for their children, like teach them to ride a bike, and sang a very moving song. I don’t know what the words to the song were, but considering that some of the students were crying and many of the mothers were as well, I can tell that it said something very special.
