04-03-09 BIG Buddhist Parties

It was Friday morning and Daeng told me we were invited to a party. I asked what time is the party and she replied 9:00 o'clock. I said: "Sure, that will be fun tonight." She responded with: "No, now!"

When I ask what kind of party started at 9:00 AM on Friday morning she cocked her head and gave me that don't understand look and told me to get dressed as I would see.

So I showered and put on shorts as it was warm along the Myanmar (Burma) border this morning.

We hopped on our motorbike and went up the hill behind the water company that looks over this small border town. As she put the motorbike in first gear to get up the hill, I could hear music.

When we came to the top of the hill we could see a big shade tent at the top of the knoll. We parked and walked up the rest of the way. There was another tent for shade higher up and a DJ was playing Thai rock-n-roll. It was about 9:25 and at least 50 people were already eating and celebrating.

Yes, that is 9:25 IN THE MORNING.

I had to find out more and Daeng explained to me that this is a celebration as the son, "Som-Pet", age 12, (spelled phonetically) was going to be cleansed on the outside of his body as well as the inside of his body. How this was done is he already had all the hair on his body shaved and had been bathed. Now he would fast sixteen hours a day, eating food only between the hours of 4:00 AM and 12:00 Noon each day.

To cleanse him spiritually he would spend the next seven to thirty days at a Buddhist Temple with the monks meditating and studying. This is not only to help him in his life but to also help his Mother and Father along with the whole family. That is in this life and the next.

That is why the BIG celebration.

A celebration it was. Food everywhere! Singing karaoke! More food! Dancing! More singing! More Food!

The next thing we could see was the son on his father's shoulder being carried from the lower area of the party to the higher tent and then into the house. They also had a set of gongs that were all together so that one handle rang them all at the same time. They were striking these gongs while others were beating drums and cymbals, too.

Inside the house were several "Money Trees". They look like trees with money for the leaves. I was told that they would go with the son later, when he went to the Temple. They were donations for the Temple.
Som-Pet was placed on the floor inside the home and everyone visited him giving him envelopes with money and wishing him the very best.

Outside, the party was going full blast with people eating, drinking, singing, dancing and eating more. All this before 11:00 in the morning.

And More Dancing.......

I'm told it will last all day, into the night and maybe the weekend.

And More food....

More Dancing.....

More Food........

And more Drinking at 10:30 in the morning... What a party!

And with all that food, someone

has to do the dishes!

Daeng told me that we had to leave as we needed to go to another home, too. We said good-bye and wished everyone the best.

We hopped on the motorbike and went down the hill and over to the Temple of 207 steps. On the road to the top of that Temple was another family celebrating the same thing for their son, "Kay" (again spelled phonetically). He is also age 12 and doing the same thing as "Som-Pet".

Yep, more food, dancing and partying. It was a fun morning. The party lasted well into the night, too.