A country of Big Birds.

Friday marks the 60th anniversary of the coronation of the King of Thailand. This is HUGE. Our King is the longest reigning king of modern times and people have been gearing up for the celebration all year. In a country where EVERY house, if not every room has a prominent picture of the king you can tell this is big.

In recognition of the 60th anniversary everyone in the country is wearing yellow shirts for the 1st to the 15th of June. Everywhere you go everyone is wearing yellow, yellow, yellow. It's the color of the king, as he was born on a Monday, and yellow is Monday's color. Have I mentioned how every day gets a color in Thailand?

Day's of the week are so important here. I think I gave my co-teacher a heart attack when I told her I didn't know what day of the week I was born. Uniforms and coordinating outfits is also important. All school children wear uniforms. And the teachers and town officials also wear certain outfits on certain days. In my town Wednesday is green day. Everyone has matching green shirts or suits. All the same shade of dark green. I just found out Thursday is teacher's day, as 'Paruhat' (the guy Thursday is named for) was a teacher.

Thailand is also BIG on the rubber bracelet craze. When I was here 2 years ago I could spot an American, even among all other foreigners, by a yellow 'LiveStrong' bracelet. Not only were imitation 'LiveStrong' bracelets sold on the street here for 50 cents. They made every color bracelet and every cause imaginable. Sometimes the money went to a help a cause, as with my Thailand World AIDS day bracelet, and sometimes it just went into someones pocket, like with all the LiveStrong bracelets. The most popular bracelet now is a 'LONG LIVE THE KING' bracelet. In yellow of course.


Here's a CNN article about the yellow shirt craze. (but the shirts do not seem in low supply at all- they are being sold all over the place.)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/05/thailand.yellow.ap/index.html