Screaming Sopping Wet Powder-Smeared Million






My body is still aching from yesterday's massive country-wide water fight. Hard to believe this started hundreds of years ago as a gentle ceremony to honor the elderly by pouring scented water over their hands and blessing them. Now it is a huge raging water-fight party where every city goes bezerk. If you don't want to play, you better stay home and lock the door. If you have to go to the store to buy milk, just expect you will be doused with water and smeared with color powder, over and over again. And you have to smile when it happens! :)
What happened to the gentle elder-honoring ceremony?
Culture changes through time, I suppose. Anyway, we did both yesterday with our Thai friends and Thai co-workers. We had a bucket of sweet-scented water with flower-petals in it and blessed the elderly and middle-aged of our village of Bang Sak. Then we filled plastic 50-gallon drums full of water and ice, bought bottles of powder, packed them and ourselves in the back of pick-up trucks and joined the craziness along the road.
Hundreds of thousands, probably over a million, of people all over Thailand did just the same, screaming, sopping wet, powder-smeared fun.
In the evening we did our Friday night cell-group as usual, but everyone was kind of laying on the floors and couches trying to stay awake, me included.
Ken's Bible study last night was on, no suprise, the woman at the well and Jesus offering living water!
Celebrating and having fun together is a wonderful way to get closer to one another and the community as well.
I love Thailand!
(Click title above to see pictures and read commentary on the Songkran Festival of 2007)

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