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Most Thais are Buddhists, and the daily offering of food to monks, called tham boon tak bàat, is one of the most important Buddhist acts. Every day throughout the country, in urban and rural communities, Thai Buddhist monks receive their daily food during a practice known as bintábàat. Walking through the streets and paths in the early morning, the monks are met by people offering food. Food is also offered at numerous religious shrines and is an important part of most Thai Buddhist ceremonies. from answers.com
Making Merit ‑ Tham boon. You will hear Thai people referring to 'boon' or merit. Why is it important to them? It has got to be top priority if they want to move towards enlightenment and improve their lot. Here is how: lead a good life, observe the 5 precepts, be kind, give to the poor, offer food to monks on their early morning round, and donate to the temple. Highest merit points go to those who become a monk or a nun. You can transfer merit to someone else if that is your wish. Thai Buddhists also make merit by visiting the temple on special holidays, see Festivals, their birthday, or any important anniversary. There is no special day for attendance (such as Sunday for Christians). From Pattaya Vacation
...there is also a ritual performed by monks to the relics of the dead in order to pass on merits to them. This ritual is known as Bangsukun Atthi. It will be performed once during the Songkran festival on any of the three days. From ThaiIndian.com
April 15 marks the Thai New Year. This is the most important day of the Songkran New Year celebrations. It is a day traditionally spent making merit and performing charitable acts such as presenting offerings to the monks and listening to sermons, sprinkling holy water on Buddha images and monks, propping up the sacred Bo tree in the temple grounds, and calling on elders to receive their blessings. A bathing ritual is observed in which lustral water is poured over respected elders in a gesture of respect and reverence. The seeking of their blessing or forgiveness for past wrong-doing is also implied. From tat.com.
The throwing of water during Songkran is not a mere amusement, but has some connection with the belief of having abundant rain for the coming season of cultivation. According to the popular belief, it rains because the Nagas or mythical serpents sport themselves by spouting water from the ocean. The more they spout the more abundantly the rain will come. The young people continue to sing dance and play games after the last day of Songkran comes to an end, if the rain has not yet begun. from thaiembassy.jp
This [Day Three of Songkran] is the first official day of the New Year and on this day people cleanse the Buddha images in their homes as well as in the temples with scented water. from Chiang Mai.com
On the second day of the New Year festival, Thai people traditionaly carry sand into temples compounds in order to build a small pagoda ("PHRA CHEDI SAI" - พระเจดีย์ทราย). These sand piles represent personal pagodas built as part of the merit-making ritual. People leaving a temple during the previous year have taken with them temple dust. Taking sand into the temple during Songkran festival atones for what they have taken out. from Thaiworldview
Having carried the Boddhisattva in her womb for precisely ten lunar months, Maya gave a birth to him. On the full moon in May, passing by the Lumbini grove on her way to her home town, she was captivated by the beauty of the flowering sala trees and stepped down from her palanquin to walk amongst the trees in the grove. As she reached for a branch of a sala tree, which bent itself down to meet her hand, the pangs of birth came upon her. Thus, while other women are depicted as giving birth sitting or lying down, the Bodhisattva's mother is shown delivering her child while standing and holding on to the branch of a sala tree in the garden of Lumbini. From ORIAS.
After two and a half years of filming in the jungles and mountains of Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and China, "The Music of the Golden Triangle and the Cycles of Life" has moved into post production. The documentary film and CD will be released in 2008.
The Golden Triangle, a Chicago gallery of rare furnishings from Southeast Asia, China and Central Europe, will be hosting a reception to support the ongoing work of "The Music of the Golden Triangle and the Cycles of Life". 22 May 2008
The Golden Triangle
330 N. Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60610.
info@goldentriangle.biz Tel: 1 (312) 755 1266
from Music and the Cycles of Life
The family sprinkling scented water from silver bowls on a Buddha image is a ritual practiced by all Thais in on the third day of Songkran, known as Wan Payawan. This is the first official day of the New Year and on this day people cleanse the Buddha images in their homes as well as in the temples with scented water. The family is dressed in traditional Thai costume and wearing leis of jasmine flower buds. The water is scented with the petals of this flower.
There was a table at the entrance of our building with a small Buddha and some fragrant water. But when we ventured out into the streets we found the modern Chiang Mai Songkran of tossing water on passers by.
In addition to the cleansing of the Buddha images a traditional Songkran involves the sprinkling of water by younger people on the older people as a tribute of respect and for blessings. This is much different from the water tossing we see on the streets and is a genuinely sincere event whereby scented water is poured over the shoulder and gently down the back of the person. While pouring the water in this manner, people utter good wishes and words of blessing for the New Year. The water symbolizes cleansing, refreshment of the spirit and all good things associated with life.
Songkran (สงกรานต์) is the traditional Thai New Year Festival which starts on April 13 every year.The word Songkran comes from the Pali language of the Therevada Buddhist scriptures (Sankhara) and the Sanskrit word (Sankranti) for movement or change.
In ancient times, it was celebrated as a moveable feast, and set to occur as the sun moved into the Aries portion of the zodiac. In modern times the date has been fixed as April 13.
Although the Thai people officially changed the New Year to January 1 in 1940 to coincide with the Western business world, the traditional Songkran Festival is still celebrated as a national holiday.
The festival lasts for 4 days. Maha Songkran Day
is the first day of the celebrations which marks the end of the old year. April 14, Wan Nao is the day between the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new year when foods are prepared for the temples. The third day of Songkran, April 15, is Wan Thaloeng Sok - the day on which the New Year begins and on the last day, Wan Parg-bpee, the ancestors and elders are honored.