THAI WEDDING TRADITIONS

Wedding is an important day in life of every person. Its preparation starts long before the celebration itself. Depending on the customs and traditions of the nation, wedding preparation can have several stages, each having its own peculiarities. Some wedding customs may seem odd to the European person, some of them may seem interesting. For each nation, wedding traditions are something they have to follow to make their married life happy and unshadowed. Thus, in Thailand they believe that the perfect time for wedding is August. Earlier, the bride and the groom were thrown together by matchmakers at the parents' request. Today, it is the thing of the past and young people prefer to find their matches without somebody's help. Parents prefer not to interfere with the process. They get acquainted with their daughter's boyfriend but demand marriage if only they know they are close. Otherwise, they just stay aside. Thailand wedding is very beautiful. It is accompanied by various beautiful and unusual rites and traditions without which wedding is not considered a wedding.

Pre-wedding Rites and Traditions

After the young people have decided to cast in their lots, the oldest members of the man's family ask the oldest members of the girl's family permission for this marriage. Thais are very superstitious and approach wedding in a very responsible manner. To choose the wedding day, the relatives of the future newlyweds go to Buddhist monks who calculate the wedding date and time from the fianc? and fianc?e data. After the date of the wedding has been appointed, they start preparation. Earlier, they had engagement before wedding, but today they usually combine them. This is mostly explained by saving purposes.

Before the wedding, the groom must present a ransom for his bride. The ransom is called Sin Sot. What is interesting, he must present it to the girl but not to her relatives. The ransom can be money or things. Its amount is large, especially taking into account that Thailand is not a rich country. The ransom ceremony is usually festive. It must be accompanied with a festive procession called Khan Maak in which groom's relatives and friends also take part. Khan Maak procession starts from the groom's house from where they go to the bride's house holding gifts for the bride and her relatives. Today family's welfare doesn't allow to present expensive gifts, however there are some gifts without which ransom and wedding are impossible.

The gifts must include the three bowls: Khaan Mun, Khaan Ngern Sinsord and Khaan Maak. Khaan Mun is a bowl with flowers. The number of flowers should necessary be odd, the bowl must be luxurious, rich and decorated with various strips. The groom presents this bowl to the bride. Khaan Maak is the bowl with betel nuts. It is also decorated with flowers. They put only two nuts to the bowl: the bride and the groom. In addition to nuts, the bowl must contain some bags of sesame seeds, rice, and beans. The bags symbolize wealth, the bride and the groom will never starve and will always have gracious living. They also put 12 cooper, 12 silver and 12 gold leaves to the bowel. The leaves represent wealth and prosperity. They believe if the requirements are met, the newlyweds will never lack money. The last bowl, Khaan Ngern Sinsord, is namely the Sin Sot presented to the bride. The fuller is the bowl and the more gifts and money it has the wealthier is the groom and the stronger are his feeling to the bride. By presenting this bowl, the groom acknowledges he is able to support the family and take responsibility.

Wedding Rites and Traditions

The necessary rite in the wedding day is Khao Kwun. The groom and the bride go to temple accompanied by drumbeat. In the temple, five monks say prayers appealing to the deity to give happiness to the groom and the bride, make their life long and their love and marriage firm. Monks have a break in dinnertime and the bridal couple must provide meals for them. The more abundant table is and the more delicious and refined are dishes, the happier will be the life of the groom and the bride. Therefore, they try not to scrimp. After meals, monks say prayers again. The senior monk sprinkles the couple and all the guests with water. The groom and the bride touch by their heads and the monk binds them with a ribbon thus blessing their union. Then parents hang a wreath of natural flowers on them. The eldest and the most honored village liver or wedding guest waters their hands from large bowl and wishes all the best. The rite is then repeated by all the guests. They take water from special bowl with lotus leaves. In Thailand, they believe lotus is able to give posterity and make the couple fertile.

There is one more interesting rite called Pit Pi. It is performed if the bride and the groove had sex before marriage. Because deflowered bride can desecrate the house, they should appease the ghosts. To do this, the eldest member of the bride's family addresses the ghosts of the groom's family telling them about the newlywed's guilt before them. Then the groom must apologize to the bride, her relatives, and all the ghosts. The groom's apologies must be accompanied with gifts to the ghosts. These can be flowers, incenses, and money. They take gifts to special room again telling the ghosts that the couple is guilty but they are making it up. When the sticks decay, all guest start dining.

Puk Muea rite is held to allow guest to wish happiness to the couple. The husband and the wife stand on their knees and put their starched joined hands on a pillow. All the guests who wish happiness bind their wrists with laces of special plaiting.

A guest dressed in black is considered a bad luck. Black is the color of mourning, and this means the couple's life will be injured with a misfortune. The bride can change her apparel several times during the wedding day because many rites require new clothes.

The guests usually present money. Despite they present money in envelopes, if somebody gives too little money, it will become known to others. The groom must drink a cup with his every friend. Many grooms abuse this tradition; therefore, they often do not have the first wedding night in the full sense of the word.

Traditionally, at the end of the Thai wedding, all guests accompany the newlyweds to their marital bed, which is necessary strewed with flower leaves symbolizing love and wealth that will always be in this house.