The Spectator
The glorious weirdness of Christmas in Thailand
Bangkok Christmas in Thailand is one of the strangest festivities of the modern world. A country that is almost entirely Buddhist, which does not r...
Christmas in Thailand is one of the strangest festivities of the modern world. A country that is almost entirely Buddhist, which does not recognise Christmas as a public holiday, whose people have almost no idea what the event means, nevertheless erects giant glittering Christmas trees in its malls and intersections. These are larger and more numerous than the ones you see in London. Itβs not difficult to imagine a future where British tourists fly to Bangkok to rediscover the mood of Christmas, not in shopping but in pagan feeling.
December shoppers in the Bangkok mega-malls are greeted by choirs of small girls in Santa hats who ring bells and sing about the Wenceslas and the feast of Stephen. The eerie strains of βSilent Nightβ echo down floors of office furniture and electronics. No one seems to ask why the night is silent or why a man named Wenceslas went out on the feast of Stephen. No one here knows why we farangs sing songs about him. But then does anyone in England? The words are lost, meaningless in both places, but here the overall mood is lighter. The fun is there. Perhaps because Christians are only 1 per cent of the population. An animist spirit prevails and the trashy, globalised, commercial holiday somehow, strangely, doesnβt feel as trashy, globalised or commercial as it does in many other places. Purists will argue that itβs all empty β a cynical misunderstanding. All right. But something else is there.
https://archive.ph/m8IbS
