Today the whole island celebrated Songkran Day. It is a huge Thai holiday with religious roots that is a day of cleansing. Our day started with a parade with 3 floats and 2 of only 3 women on the island being named Ms. Songkran Days. They rode on one flower covered float and a female impersonator rode and danced on the other. Everyone was in the parade so the only way you could see it was to jog ahead and watch it go by and then tag on at the back. There were 4 drummers to set the cadence for the parade and we all wound our way to Captain Brooks. Once there a small religious observance was held and then the 5 or 6 oldest people on the island, including me, were seated and almost the entire Thai population walked past and blessed each of us in turn and poured water all over us. We also had our faces and shirts plastered with a clay and water mixture. I don't know the significance of all this but cleansing and purification is continually mentioned. We then went out closer to the beach and ate and drank. We had: roast pig, barbecued fish, Poke Salad, barbecued chicken gizzards, roast Turkey and sticky white rice. This was not the place for a vegetarian! There was then a tug of war between small teams that went on over and over until the best team eliminated everyone else. It was an amazing day!
No comments:
Post a Comment