Wednesday 5 December 2007

Happy Birthday King Bhumibol

We're off to the Grand Palace today to celebrate the Kings 80th Birthday. We have even gone and bought yellow shirts to mark the occasion - Chris thought it might helps us blend but I'm not convinced!!

If you are wondering why we are wearing yellow - I'll explain.....

In Thailand each day of the week is associated with a colour and traditionally people would wear items of clothing according to the colour of the day.

  • Monday is Yellow
  • Tuesday is Pink
  • Wednesday is Green
  • Thursday is Orange
  • Friday is Blue
  • Saturday is Purple
  • Sunday is Red

(Marissa, our downstairs neighbour, claims that this system is great cause she always knows what day it is......we keep threatening to go into her flat and swap her shirts around!!!)

The King was born on Monday 5th of December 1927 so to show their love for their King the Thai people always wear yellow on a Monday.

So now you know.....

I'd better go cause it would be nice to get a glimpse of him

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find it hard to imagine Chris blending in, he's at least a foot higher up than anyone else! However, it will be seen as a mark of respect. Good on you!

Love Mum xx

Lane Mathias said...

Oh I always learn something here:-)

hope you had a lovely time in your yellow shirts:-)
x

Anonymous said...

I wonder how happy a birthday it can be for the King when his succession is so much in doubt. have you seen www.thai-politics.com/blog ?

Carol said...

Mum - We didn't blend...what we did get was amused and bemused looks. We had a great time - the crowds were insane. Will try and blog about it later today but am currently trying to book us a weekend trip to Kanchanaburi (Need to get out of the city for a few days and see some mountains!!)

Lane - I love the fact that days have colours. A friend of mine said that she had a new boss at work, British, who had walked into the office and said 'What is this? Pink Day or something?' and was then utterly gobsmacked when one of the Thai's turned round and said 'Yes'.

Anon - I couldn't access your thai-politics blog but I am well aware of the concerns around who is going to be his successor (It's impossible to live here and not know about it!!). Some people are saying it will be the Princess and others are saying it will be the Prince - whoever it is I do hope that the political situation will have been resolved and the country stabilised.

C x

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