Sakon Nakhon - Live: Buddhist Holiday

Showing posts with label Buddhist Holiday. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Sakon Nakhon Faithful gather

Visakha Bucha Day Parade

Hot, Wet and Humid

	Wed 6	Thu 7	Fri 8	Sat 9	Sun 10	Mon 11	Tue 12
AccuWeather	34/25	32/25	30/20	32/24	32/25	31/25	32/24
AccuWeather Feels Like	46/29	43/28	41/28	39/27	39/27	37/26	36/25
MeoWeather	34/25	33/25	32/25	30/25	31/25	32/25	30/25
Thai Meteorological	34/27 40%	34/24 40%	32/24 50%	31/25 40%	31/24 30%	30/24 40%	30/24 40%
The Weather Channel	32/24 60%	31/24 60%	31/24 60%	31/25 60%	32/25 30%	31/25 30%	30/25 40%
Wunderground	31/25 80%	30/25 80%	30/25 80%	31/25 70%	31/25 60%	32/25 60%	31/24

% = chance of rain

Elections are concluded

Did not witness any payoffs personally, but have heard voters could cash in from 300 to 800 baht. Supposedly 'paymasters' did especially well collecting 100 or 200 baht on each payout.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Another Great Day in Sakon Nakhon

Visakha Bucha Day Parade Preparations June 4

A few minor traffic jams throughout town as floats crawled to the starting line.

Floats where parked wherever there was free space

Folks dressed in white for the occasion, gathered at the parade starting point. It was still quite early.

Fair at the Municipal grounds

Seemed like they were just setting up

Wat Phra That Choeng Chum on Visakha Bucha Day

Sakon Nakhon Election Day, June 5

Alcohol free day. Bars closed.
I'm just glad it's almost over.
Those trucks with their speaker systems which would make any disco owner envy.
Yesterday they were going around in convoys, blaring last minute election propaganda.

I did get quite a surprise yesterday when I crossed their path.
"Hello mister Hans, how are you today?" Perfect English no less!
The announcer went on in Thai, giving a short rendition of my personal history.
I don't understand Thai, but I guess if every sentence begins with Mister Hans, then it had to be about me.

I circled around to another street. There they were again. The whole process of "hello mister Hans..." and the rendition of my life was repeated.

The first time it was amusing, the second time it was a bit embarrassing.

Note: This blog entry is made before the conclusion of the election.
As I do not wish to promote any political entity, I will enlarge the photographs after the election

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Celebrating in Sakon Nakhon

Visakha Bucha celebrations in Sakon Nakhon

Sakon Nakhon has hosted the annual celebrations of Visakha Bucha Day since 2003 Bangkok Post

The next major Buddhist Holiday is Asalha Puja August 2, celebrating Buddha's first sermon.
The following day is Wan Khao Phansa, the beginning of the Buddhist rain retreat (Buddhist Lent)

Keeping track of Buddhist holidays can be a bit of a problem. These holidays are based on the lunar calendar and change every year.

Many websites have erroneous information regarding these holidays.
The 2012 Sakon Nakhon Wax Castle Festival is a typical example.
One website lists the event dates October 8-12. Those dates were the 2011 dates.

2012 Royal Long Boat Races and Wax Castle Festival

Haven't seen any official dates for this year's events, so I did a little math based on previous celebrations


Year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Full Moon	Oct 26	Oct 14	Oct 4	Oct 23	Oct 12	Oct 29
Celebration Dates	Oct 22-26	Oct 10-14	Sept 30-Oct 4	Oct 20-23	Oct 8-12	Oct 26-30

Photo Album Update

After a disk crash last year, and almost loosing thousands of photographs (over 50,000), I've made multiple copies and am in a long process of sharing them on the web.

It's been quite a surprise to many of my friends and Thai family who are seeing pictures of themselves taken over the past ten years.
Of course it's also quite interesting to see changes that have taken place here in the city.