Episode 13: Every second Saturday in the month of January, Thailand celebrates Children’s Day. It’s the day where children get to play games, receive gifts, and one that they look forward to, very much in the same way Western children would look forward to Halloween or Christmas.
Also learn about the days of the week and the significance of each day for Thais.
Download MP3 to listen offline here
by Lani
Holidays are for children. This is something I noticed when I was a Waldorf teacher about 10 years ago in the United States. Holidays come alive, holidays are fun and there are so many activities and stories centered on these “holy days” for the little ones. I thoroughly miss working with children especially on special days when magic and wonder seem to abound.
A Children’s Day is actually celebrated around the world throughout many countries. The Wikipedia has comprehensive information about this here.
Although holidays are important, in Thai culture, each day of the week has significance as well. What day you were born is essential to know. To find out what day of the week you were born, go to the 10,000 Year Calendar
Next you will want to visit: this website to see the Buddha image for each day, which you might have already noticed when you visit วัด/wát or temples, and also the color and characteristics for each day. Wearing the right color on the right day brings you special luck.
|
Day |
Phonetic |
Thai |
Color of the day |
Phonetic | Thai |
Celestial Body |
God of the day |
| Sunday |
wan-aa-tít |
อาทิตย์ |
red | síi-daeng | สีแดง | Sun | Surya |
| Monday | wan-jan | วันจันทร์ | yellow | síi-leuang | สีเหลือง | Moon | Chandra |
| Tuesday | wan-angkaan | วันอังคาร | pink | síi-chompoo | สีชมพู | Mars | Mangala |
| Wednesday | wan-pút | วันพุธ | green | síi-kĭeow | สีเขียว | Mercury | Budha |
| Thursday | wan-pá-réu-hàt* | วันพฤหัส* | orange | síi-sôm | สีส้ม | Jupiter | Brihaspati |
| Friday | wan-sùk | วันศุกร์ | light blue | síi-fáa | สีฟ้า | Venus | Shukra |
| Saturday | wan-săo | วันเสาร์ | purple | síi-mûang | สีม่วง | Saturn | Shani |
* A short version of Thursday : wan-pá-réu-hàt-sà-bor-dee วันพฤหัสบดี
วัน /wan means day
สี/sĭi means color
Learn Thai colors from Mia’s Youtube channel
If you’d like to learn more about the Thai’s beliefs about colors and the days of the week Buddha images.
iTune Podcast
Further proof that I was born at the wrong time! I was born in the year of the Ox under the sign of Taurus on the day of the Hindu God of war and the planet Mars (Roman god of war) This all seems very macho till you look at the colour of the day – pink. But I suppose that that allows me to be more in touch with my feminine side and balances the aggressive, egotistical and very self confident traits suggested by the other symbols.
In UK we have a traditional poem linking day of birth to fortune:
Monday’s child is fair of face
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day Is bonny and blithe and good and gay
(I should point out that the word gay here has its original meaning of cheerful, happy)
Keith, คุณเกิดปีวัว เรียกอีกอย่างว่าปีฉลู ลองฝึกอ่าน พยากรณ์คนเกิดปีฉลูตลอดชีวิต ที่นี่นะคะ อาจจะยากไปนิดแต่ก็ลองพยายามดูนะคะ
now, translate into Thai..wooh!!! not easy…
Keith, you were born in the year of Ox วัว, the other name is ปีฉลู. Try to read the life forecast here…it might be a bit hard but please try
http://www.horawej.com/index.php?lay=show&ac=article&Id=154034&Ntype=5
ps. some site on www. said…the stubborn Ox, is this true??
Stubborn! Me? 555 I think that is for others to say 555 I will have a go at reading that web site now, meanwhile, I was intrigued by the Buddha Image relevant to my day of the week. When I first looked, I saw that it is that of the Reclining Buddha. I was most impressed as i was told by a friend, when we were visiting a temple and I was having the Images explained to me, that it is considered to be a most important image as it represents Lord Buddha entering Nirvana. Being a stubborn Ox, I decided to research it more, and have just read that because this image has his hand under his head, this pose represents Lord Buddha teaching the giant humility. Perhaps this is another example of my stubborness unable to just accept the explanation, seemingly preferring to confuse myself by digging too deep.
Will go look at that site now.
55555 Oh Mia, I have made a classic mistake! As always, when reading a large block of Thai text, I copied and pasted it into Word, enlarged it and printed it out. That allows me to make notes (and makes the reading easier for old eyes)
I read as far as – คนเกิดปีฉลู ชาติกำเนิดเป็นบุรุษ ขี่วัว and was very puzzled! As you can guess, I read ขี่วัว wrongly as ขี้วัว.
This is going to take quite a time as it does tend to use what I think are very formal or at least uncommon words
In between walking the dogs and cooking, I have managed to read just the first 2 sections of that link. I am a little bit muddled about the months and elements.
I assume that เดือนอ้าย means the same as เดือนแสก i.e. first month. That being so, I am not sure which month that is. Is it January or, as I see there is a reference to deuanyii, month 2 which I remember you saying, in the traditional calendar is November?
As far as the elements go, I assume that ธาตุดิน taat-din would mean the element earth (the old 4 elements earth, fire, water, air) but in each of the four groups it follows that with a description of the earth – din jawm kao (earth of his master?) din taa yung kaao (earth paint/spread rice barn?) are a puzzle though, the other two are easier. din suk baked earth and din dtom boggy or marshy earth. I tried wikipedia but it just brought me back to ปีฉลู
I loved section 2 the description of character, occupation and love. Some of it I recognised and the rest I would love to be. Actually, now I think about it, just the fact that I have spent so much time today reading and researching so much of this, determined to understand every little bit confirms a lot of what is written there. I just hope that there is a little bit of truth in the charm and charisma bit! Now to start work on the remainder.