Lent Thai Style

One can never get too much of a good thing.  That is why I never get bored living in a country where each year I get to observe two Lents, comparing and contrasting what happens in two different cultures.

Christian Lent is for everyone, aiming at their growth by observing a time of fasting and giving and entering into spiritual exercises.  Buddhist Lent is more geared towards an exclusive group - their monks who are to strictly observe their lifestyle of meditation, fasting and staying put in their temples.  It is opened up to many with young Thai males fulfilling their social and family expectations of being a monk for some short time in their lives.

Christian Lent fits in with the northern hemisphere change of seasons, happening during the northern spring.  It is a time when people are emerging from a dark and cold winter into a bright and sunny summer.  Buddhist Lent is just as smart in timing.  It happens during rainy season which serves a very practical purpose in a traditionally agrarian society, for this is a good time for young men to take time out from farming while the rice crop is left to grow.  So they can go off to the temple when there is not so much work around their farms.  As for the general populace, they are meant to watch their drinking.  Given all one may think of Thailand, it is quite a modest and conservative society.  Shocked?

The approach to Lent in Thai Buddhism is interesting when so many live in the big city where life goes on at a hectic pace with all its pressures, Lent or no Lent.  People's lives continue focusing on work and earning a living.  That is reality.  No matter our lot in life or our beliefs and culture, it is always good to stand back and take a good look at life, and that is so for everyone.

So Buddhist Lent begins on Friday 27th July.  Let it begin.