It's Easter

It's Easter week in Bangkok and traffic is just extra terrible but not because it is Easter.  So why?  I am told it is the annual time for honouring the Chinese custom of acknowledging the dead.  So everyone is off everywhere to visit the dead.  Amazing! 

Then yesterday, I went to the funeral mass for the father of a Thai priest who has been good to me.  It is the first time in over seven years that I have been to a funeral mass.  What I noticed struck me.  Having a son a priest, I assume that this family is very Catholic but they still use Buddhist symbols.  I saw the incense sticks on the coffin and some other signs of Buddhism. Christianity is still very young in this country and while ones may be Catholic, they are Thai and very affected by the strong Buddhist environment here. 

What I also noticed at the funeral was that the priest's family were good, simple people - nothing complicated about them.  I was also struck by the number of priests.  There were over 50 and the ones I met were very friendly. 

As I reflect on the holding onto Buddhist ways within the Church here, I think of the line from the mother of the bride at a wedding I attended.  It was for a very Catholic family but still their strong belief was that the more priests they had present, the better and stronger the marriage would be.  It is all nearly superstitious. 

Maybe I am too western and rational.