Ploughing Day, how come it’s a holiday?
As I was doing some research for work, my Japanese boss walked over to my desk with a table calendar in his hand. He was asking what holiday it is on Wednesday (11 May) as he realized that we have so many days of holidays this month … no one had any breaklast week though, half of us were in Chiangmai and the other half were in Phi Phi. And the whole office were on called all weekend as well. Anyway, I said to him that it’s a Ploughing day, actually it’s royal ploughing day
He probably never heard of it before, so after a long explanation in English, I had to do another translation in my broken Japanese…So 20 minutes of serious discussion he finally said..
“Why it’s a holiday?”
Well.. I don’t want go into details of the history of the ploughing day so I simply said, “Well, it is just a ceremony that symbolized the start of the sowing period, and because the King also involved in the ceremony, it’s believed to bring farmers good harvests”
He nodded simultaniously and went uuh and ahh.. as if he understood what I said, then went quiet for a while before saying
“But how come it’s a holiday?” he was really curious
That’s what I also don’t know. All I know is I deserve a holiday!
Thing is everyone seemed to be working today. I had two meetings in offices and everyone was there. So, WAS it a holiday or not?!
well it’s a holiday for my company.. :)
but seemed like all my friends were at work today
It wasn’t a holiday for me (sadly). Even though Thailand seems to have more public holidays than anywhere else, I still think there needs to be more. If they could be even ly spaced throughout the year it would be even better.
mm. it’s a ancient quasi “religious” holiday actually, the monks that do the ritual are brahmin (sp?) monks. it’s basically like an inaugaural day. the brahmin monks bless the seeds and start um doing all this hoopla to symbolise the beginning of the sowing period. after the ceremony, people try to get the blessed seeds because they believe it’s gonna bring a good harvest.