Many of you may be wondering about Christmas in Thailand. As you probably already know Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country (and Christmas is somehow related to Christianity - although the relationship is not really clear to me - something about Jesus’ grandfather, Santa Claus, going shopping and eating lots of food? And snowmen? - I have never understood how that relates to a festival that occurs in the middle of summer).
Anyway, basically, the majority of Thais do not celebrate Christmas and in fact many have probably never heard of it (although due to TV I think most know of it now).
Thailand is far from perfect and has many problems, but often I have noticed the following Christmas related attitudes / activities:
Giving gifts - this occurs on any day in Thailand. Every morning people give food to the monks, every afternoon stray cats and dogs are fed in the temples and gardens or in the sois. If people are visiting another home or they have some time off to visit their family, they will often take gifts. If people have cooked more food than they need for themselves, many people regularly then go out and offer this to the neighbours.
Peace and Goodwill etc. Hmmm, this too is just normal daily behaviour. In Thailand it is quite impolite to show anger or aggression. Generally most people (unfortunately not all) seem to want to live in a peaceful and happy society and they behave accordingly.
The big expensive department stores in the major cities do celebrate Christmas of course. For them it is a special season where they can make more money and play very bad English songs over the PA system. Perhaps the owner of the store will be able to afford another expensive car or a new mansion. The richer Thais also celebrate Christmas by spending money at these department stores.
Every year in Thailand, as in other parts of the world, the little rich kids are told that if they are good they will be given gifts from Santa Claus. Of course, it doesn’t matter if they are good or not, their parents will give them gifts anyway, whilst the world’s poorer kids will get nothing. Hmmm, in fact while many people in the richer countries stuff their faces with food, many of the world’s poorer kids will starve and die.
Like most Thais I also do not take part in an extravagant Christmas. I did enjoy last year’s Christmas with Sue and David in Borneo, which I think was special but not overboard.
Sorry to be negative about this festival which many of you quite like (although if you really think about what I am saying you’ll find it is not negative at all). I find Christmas a very fake period of time. World leaders will pull out and dust off their peace and good will speeches and then continue killing and exploiting people. Even the world’s religious leaders will talk about peace and goodwill and other such feelings as if they were special and difficult to achieve states of mind. Surely, “the Christmas spirit” should actually be everyone’s normal daily attitude, not something stored away for a special occasion. The talk at Christmas time is about giving and kindness etc, but the actions are all about consumption. No thanks.
To add to my normal un-Christmas like feeling, this week I have been informed that my work in January has been cancelled.
2 or 3 months ago I started organizing to work for a month with the Australian Army. This would have provided me with about 1/3rd of my income for 2005. They responded quite positively to my request and offered me at least a month worth of work in Jan / Feb. I have stopped working at the Kindergarten, I have organized my other dates around this work and have booked and paid for flights. A few days ago (about a week before I fly to Australia), the Army informed me that I couldn’t work for them at that time. Why? Long story, but basically 2 forms have not been completed and processed in time and now that it is the Christmas period, it is not possible to get these forms done. Hmmm, this situation is totally out of my control, which I do not like. A number of good people in the Army, included Brett and Mark have worked extremely hard on my behalf to try to fix this situation. However it now seems that despite all their efforts, I will loose this work. (I suspect this will largely be due to a overly bureaucratic senior officer).
Anyway, in a few days time I will fly to Australia and search for work. Tomorrow is my only free day to pack my bags - what will I pack for??? Next year what will my lifestyle be like??? Will I have enough money??? What will I be doing? Hmmm, it is now all unknown again. Ha ha - sometimes this is good - life is more exciting with some unknowns, but also it is slightly stressing and annoying that the Army has done this to me.
Anyway, thanks to the people that have worked hard to resolve the situation. Mai Pen Rai. I am sure I will survive and come up with an alternative.
