In Thailand…that is
Today is the Queen Mother’s birthday. That mean’s it’s also the official Mother’s Day in Thailand.
It’s been about a year and a half since her husband, the King, died. There is a new King now, but the Queen Mother continues to be greatly loved by Thai’s, in the same way that Queen Elizabeth’s Mother was loved in the UK. This is a day where there are flowers and pictures of the Queen Mother to be seen everywhere. For example, there is a huge portrait of her located on one of the skytrain plaza platforms. (The first slide.) At one of the local malls, there is a giant art installation that has been constructed totally out of flowers to commemorate the Queen Mother’s birthday. It’s pretty impressive as can be seen in slides 2-5 above. At the same mall, there is also a large exhibition of crafts commemorating her birthday. One of the exhibits, a boat with a dancing figure is shown in slide 7.
Even in my apartment building, there are notices in the elevators – slide 8 – indicating that on the Queen Mother’s birthday, it is recommended that residents refrain from any repairs or renovations. Noise during the royal birthday is not apparently not appreciated. Finally, at the hospital, outside of the main entrance, there is a portrait and flowers to honour her birthday. You can see this on the last slide.
All over Thailand there are best wishes for Moms and flowers galore.
The expression heard everywhere today is “Suksan Wan Mae” (สุขสันต์วันแม่) – Happy Mother’s Day.
So does the new king send official birthday wishes to his mom?
I’m sure he does. I saw an article in the media about his best wishes to his Mom. You can read about it here: https://shrtm.nu/3TSQ. I guess he cares.
My hope is that the Queen continues to have good health and a long life.
A Mother’s Day connected at its base to a national figure makes a lot of sense to me.
In Canada we have no one, well maybe Queen E II
Sophie would not be a great choice. Maybe we could just have a national lottery each year and choose one annually?
The Thais are so lucky! They have long traditions. We have to figure things out as we go along, just like commenting on blogs!