I came to Thailand for the second time
on Nov 13, 2012. I work in Phys Dept of the Naresuan University in
Phitsanulok.
Thai Wedding 2
One of our colleagues was getting married on November 24 in the neighboring Phetchabun Province. His bride is a Ph.D. student in environmental science. Our Dept organized a trip to the wedding for
all foreigners working in the Department: four Spanish students and me. Two Thai professors from our Dept came with us.
I described a Thai wedding when I was in Thailand the first time.
http://galinapop.blogspot.com/2010/01/thai-weddings.html
The wedding I described then was not the traditional Thai wedding. Such a Western-type wedding is popular in the upper crust society.
Now I saw a traditional wedding
We arrived at the wedding around 9 am.
The groom was waiting on the road near the bride’s house.
The bride and her mom came to invite
the groom to the house.
At the house entrance, the bride washed the
groom's feet.
After that, they entered the house.
The two families
started to count the money the groom pays for his bride.
The groom and bride did not participate in the money numbering. They were sitting in the back. There was a
lot of money, maybe 1 million baht or even more, as I saw it. (30
baht =1 dollar). Probably it was his one year salary. It is my guess. I do not
know the real number. Later I was told that it might be a million, ten million or even 100 million baht, a one year salary or even ten-year salary. The groom's parents usually help their son with the payment.
After the money was numbered, the groom
gave gold jewelry to the bride, a lot of it.
Next, two crowns made of white
string were put on their heads.
They prayed for approximately one hour
together with his best man and the bride's maid.
After the prayer the groom and bride
had to go to this pink room.
The feast started when the groom and bride
emerged from the pink room.
The traditional Thai wedding is very
similar to the Jacob and Rachel (Leah) wedding described in the Old
Testament. That means the tradition survived more than three thousand
years. Most probably that happened because tradition has a lot of
common sense.
Such a wedding is practiced in other
countries here around as well. I asked a Chinese colleague about
their wedding. She told me that it is the very same. I wondered why
some Chinese families preferred boys when one child was allowed by the government.
Sometimes they killed the first girl hoping that the next child will be a boy.
Her response was: “ You grow a girl, educate her and give her to
a man. You receive money, that's all, whereas the boy transmits the
family name and tradition farther. In addition, he takes care of his
old parents. That is much more important than the lump sum received
for the girl."
I asked another colleague if a
beautiful and well-educated girl can make a fortune marrying,
receiving money and divorcing many times. He laughed: “It cannot
happen many times. It will be very difficult for her to be married the second time”.
