Valentines Day in Bangkok
So, it was valentines day and Bangkok was filled with people carrying flowers and cuddly toys around… from giggling school girls, to grown up men on their way home. And everywhere there were entrepreneurial Thais selling flowers on the streets ready to cash in on this famous day.
What struck me was that being from Europe, I never saw such a manisfestation of Valentines Day there. Sure everyone asks each other at school how many cards they’ve received from their secret admirers and in the office it’s a competition as to who will get a dozen red roses. But you don’t see so many people out and about with so many flowers even though this is a celebration of Saint Valentine and a Christian ‘holiday’. It’s certainly all about commercialism and globalization. I wonder if in the UK they’ll ever start celebrating Loi Krathong :p
Butm if you think about it, Thais celebrate – and overly exaggerate – other western days (or at least days that we associate with the west – Xmas, Halloween, etc.). They just ignore the religious side of it.
Which I guess is no different to the typical western male using Songkran as an excuse to soak a road full of prostitutes. As I witnessed, last year.
I think Thai celebrate these because they’re fun, no “christian” or “religion” issues at all.
Yesterday every department stores are full of crowd.
Yesterday, a colleague of mine received a single rose from a male friend and she was worried because, apparently, a single rose means he wants to be a ‘friend’… anyway it’s far too complicated for me.
That’s what I find funny, that Thais are celebrating a christian day just because it’s fun to buy flowers and tell someone they love them. Which is what it’s become in the west too.
i bought a bunch of heart stickers and stuck them all over my boyfriend’s face.