Loy Krathong

What’s worse than a traffic jam after a professional sporting event?  A people jam after Loy Krathong!

A few weeks ago in Chiang Mai, my family joined thousands of Thais and thousands of visiting and resident farangs to celebrate a Buddhist holiday.  We aren’t Buddhist, but this is a BIG holiday in Thailand, and we saw it as an opportunity to build some bridges and understand the culture better.

The holiday is celebrated in several ways.  Krathongs (an elaborate, little raft carrying a candle, incense and (sometimes) hair and fingernail clippings) are lit and put in the river or other waterways to symbolize the release of anger, grudges and defilements.  Fireworks and firecrackers are set off, and beauty contests are held.  But the part that we participated in was the release of the khom fai, a type of hot-air lantern.

Near Maejo University in Chiang Mai, thousands upon thousands of these lanterns are released in unison and out of unison, and they light up the sky like a fresh, new Milky Way.

The sight is amazing!  And the lanterns are fun to light (except when you get the ones made with wax, and they drip hot wax on the people below for thirty yards after you let them go).  Everyone had a good time sharing the celebration with the Thais.

Since this is an amateur sport, it should come as no surprise that some lanterns endangered some lives:

But then A11 told us she had to go.  We started to beat a hasty retreat and quickly found ourselves in a grinding, surging, waiting, jostling, immobilizing, pushing throng of people.  Some were coming, and some were going, but really neither were doing much coming or going.  It was the thickest people jam I’ve ever been stuck in.

It was a people compactor – especially for the kids.  I’m not sure exactly how they were breathing.

Trying to keep all three kids close to us, my wife and I were soon separated.  She had all three of them at first, but a couple of surges later, I found my oldest son next to me after he had been separated from the others.  We had very little say in who went where.  The throng had a mind of its own.

For 30-45 minutes, we hardly moved.  A conga line of entertaining but very pushy older Thai women forced their way into any open space as they laughed and barked out orders to those around them, but still they didn’t go far.  People on the outer edges of the mass set off firecrackers and fireworks that threatened to trigger a fight or flight response when they exploded, but no one lost their cool.  These were Thais, and they tend to take everything with a smile.

I lost sight of my wife and other two children about the time we started moving.  After a few shuffling steps, I realized why we were so stuck – there were so many people trying to get into the park that the thousands going out had to exit single file.  I felt like a kidney stone having to passing through such a tiny canal.  Reaching open air felt exhilarating!

It took my son and me some time to catch up to the rest of the family.  They were so happy to be free, I think they must have broken into a sprint.  We saw an ambulance arrive while we were trying to find them and wondered how they were ever going to get to the person who needed them.  Maybe the crowd could let the sick/hurt person body surf on top and just pass him along to the paramedics.

I’m not much of a “crowd person,” so the experience stretched me a bit, but I do have to admit that it did bring me closer to my Thai neighbors (a little too close maybe).

Ice (Water) Breaker

Happy New Year!

It’s Songkran in Thailand this week!

We took the family down to the moat around the old city in Chiang Mai to see the festival today. It’s got to be the world’s largest water fight! People roam the streets around the moat in their songtaews, pickup trucks and tuk-tuks, with giant barrels of water loaded in the back. Inside the barrels are not only water but also giant blocks of ice or frequently small children, who scoop buckets full of water and hand them to their older accomplices. Any unprotected passer-by is fair game, and we learned that you can even receive a bucketful through an open car window if you’re not careful.

Even on the side streets, locals and shop owners are waiting with water guns, hoses and buckets outside the many shops that line either side of the road. There really isn’t a safe distance at which to pass. They are happy to chase after you to give you a good dousing. One man picked up my daughter and carried her to a bucket where three people set about washing her hair – complete with shampoo! Everyone expects to get wet, and nothing is sacred – not even expensive digital cameras that we were foolish enough to remove from their ziplocked protection pouches.

It’s incredible fun – the “best holiday ever!” according to my youngest – but what I really enjoyed
was the ice-breaking interaction between Thais and farangs. It didn’t matter that we spoke different languages. It didn’t matter that we look different or come from different cultures. Water, ironically, built the bridge between us. It created a whole new language that we could share, because everyone understands the squeal of surprise that occurs when ice water makes contact.

Something special happened today – a blending of cultures, a setting-aside of differences. We found common ground in a water fight and love for our neighbor in a shared smile and a laugh. Could it really be that simple? Could cultures come together just by focusing on similarities rather than differences? May God bless this shared experience and open windows of opportunity for a little Living Water.