Anyway, this week Tuesday and Wednesday were holidays. Tuesday was Asahna Bucha Day when they remember the Buddha's first preaching to his first five disciples. Wednesday was a holy day for Buddhist Lent which occurs this time of the year, coinciding with rainy season. In an agriculture based society, having Lent during rainy season makes a lot of sense for very practical reasons. One is that in a farming community, having the monks move around during rainy season while the rice is growing is not smart, as the farmers do not want monks plodding through their rice fields and spoiling their crops. So it is good sense to keep the monks in their temples and give them something productive to do, namely, meditate during Lent. I think that is really clever.
Part of the local interpretation of the whole Buddhist holiday is not to drink. So bars are closed and drink is not sold. Still holidays are celebrated here as elsewhere with people going away and going out, Buddhist holy day or not. Thais have their way of doing things. Having said that, these are the days when Thais go to the temple and follow Buddhist ritual. It is wonderful to see and great to participate in.
So I did the Thai Buddhist thing while also taking up the opportunity to partake in a Christian practice of joining in a morning of reflection which was led by a Capuchin visiting from Italy. He shared a great insight as one coming from outside. He said that Bangkok was a place where we Christians should be in mission as it is another centre of secularism in our world, another one of those huge Asian cities without a souls. The latter is my term of phrase. We are here to help give a soul and so enrich the many holidays.
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