{"id":3076,"date":"2016-12-05T15:07:52","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T15:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/?p=3076"},"modified":"2016-12-05T15:07:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T15:07:52","slug":"the-kings-birthday-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/the-kings-birthday-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"The King&#8217;s Birthday in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today marks a somber occasion in Thailand, as people continue to grieve over\u00a0the loss of their beloved King on what would have been his 89th birthday. The official period of mourning will last an entire year &#8211; a sign of just how loved <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/remembering-king-bhumibol\/\">King Bhumibol<\/a> was by his people. Let&#8217;s learn a bit about how Thai people usually mark the birthday of their King, starting with the name of this holiday.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">Thai Name of the Holiday<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_3079\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/seadave\/3194483571\/\" aria-label=\"3194483571 2142787086 Z\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3079\" class=\"wp-image-3079\"  alt=\"Image by SeaDave from flickr.com.\" width=\"600\" height=\"518\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/3194483571_2142787086_z.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/3194483571_2142787086_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/3194483571_2142787086_z-350x302.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3079\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by SeaDave from flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The official name for this holiday is a long one, so let&#8217;s break it down into syllables:<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">\u0e27\u0e31\u0e19 \u0e09\u0e30-\u0e40\u0e2b\u0e3a\u0e25\u0e34\u0e21-\u0e1e\u0e3a\u0e23\u0e30-\u0e0a\u0e19-\u0e21\u0e30-\u0e1e\u0e31\u0e19-\u0e2a\u0e32 \u0e1e\u0e3a\u0e23\u0e30-\u0e1a\u0e32\u0e14-\u0e2a\u0e21-\u0e40\u0e14\u0e47\u0e14-\u0e1e\u0e3a\u0e23\u0e30-\u0e40\u0e08\u0e49\u0e32-\u0e2b\u0e3a\u0e22\u0e39\u0e48-\u0e2b\u0e31\u0e27<br \/>\nwan ch\u00e0-l\u0115rm-pr\u00e1-chon-m\u00e1-pan-s\u0103a pr\u00e1-b\u00e0at-s\u014fm-d\u00e8t-pr\u00e1-j\u00e2o-y\u00f2o-h\u016da<br \/>\nHis Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej&#8217;s birthday<\/h3>\n<p>One interesting aspect of the King&#8217;s birthday in Thailand is that it&#8217;s also celebrated as <strong>Father&#8217;s Day<\/strong> (\u0e27\u0e31\u0e19\u0e1e\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e41\u0e2b\u0e48\u0e07\u0e0a\u0e32\u0e15\u0e34 <em>wan p\u00f4r h\u00e0eng ch\u00e2at<\/em>). Let&#8217;s break down the Thai word for Father&#8217;s Day to better understand it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\">\n<h3><span class=\"s1\">\u0e27\u0e31\u0e19<\/span> <em>wan<\/em> = day<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">\n<h3><span class=\"s1\">\u0e1e\u0e48\u0e2d<\/span> <em>p\u00f4r<\/em> = I\/you<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">\n<h3><span class=\"s1\">\u0e41\u0e2b\u0e48\u0e07\u0e0a\u0e32\u0e15\u0e34<\/span> <em>h\u00e0eng ch\u00e2at<\/em> = national<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">In Thai, the word \u0e1e\u0e48\u0e2d<\/span> <em>p\u00f4r\u00a0<\/em>can mean &#8220;I&#8221; or &#8220;you&#8221; depending on who&#8217;s talking. If a father is speaking to his children, it means &#8220;I.&#8221; If the children are addressing their father, it means &#8220;you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>December 5th is celebrated as Father&#8217;s Day in Thailand because King Bhumibol was a father-figure for the entire nation. He was very much a man of the people, as he would often visit remote hill tribe villages and he also spearheaded many development projects to improve the livelihood of his people.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">Traditional Celebrations<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_3080\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hko_s\/6502673305\/\" aria-label=\"6502673305 43f2a706ac Z\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3080\" class=\"wp-image-3080\"  alt=\"Image by Heiko S from flickr.com.\" width=\"600\" height=\"406\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/6502673305_43f2a706ac_z.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/6502673305_43f2a706ac_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/6502673305_43f2a706ac_z-350x237.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3080\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by Heiko S from flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In the lead-up to this special holiday, buildings all over the country will be covered in royal symbols and portraits of the king. Many of these would include the message &#8220;<strong>Long live the King<\/strong>&#8221; (\u0e17\u0e23\u0e07\u0e1e\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e08\u0e23\u0e34\u0e0d <em>song pr\u00e1 j\u00e0-rern<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>You may notice a lot of <strong>yellow<\/strong> (\u0e40\u0e2b\u0e25\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e07 <em>l\u0115uang<\/em>) on this day, including thousands of marigold flowers around the Grand Palace in Bangkok. That&#8217;s because the King was born on a Monday, and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/days-of-the-week-and-months-in-thai\/\">yellow is the color of Monday<\/a> in Thai culture.<\/p>\n<p>In the morning, most people will go to a temple and give alms to monks. To mark the holiday this year, there was an auspicious assembly\u00a0of 999 monks. In years past, the King would address his people &#8211; hundreds of thousands in person and millions watching from home. Due to his ailing health, he did not deliver an address the past few years.<\/p>\n<p>In the evening, the crowd would gather in nearby Sanam Luang for a concert and fireworks to celebrate. You can see highlights of the ceremony from last year in this video:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"s1\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0e1e\u0e34\u0e18\u0e35\u0e08\u0e38\u0e14\u0e40\u0e17\u0e35\u0e22\u0e19\u0e0a\u0e31\u0e22\u0e16\u0e27\u0e32\u0e22\u0e1e\u0e23\u0e30\u0e1e\u0e23\u0e0a\u0e31\u0e22\u0e21\u0e07\u0e04\u0e25 5 \u0e18\u0e31\u0e19\u0e27\u0e32\u0e04\u0e21 2558 \u0e13 \u0e21\u0e13\u0e11\u0e25\u0e1e\u0e34\u0e18\u0e35\u0e2a\u0e19\u0e32\u0e21\u0e2b\u0e25\u0e27\u0e07\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ayWPwtlVugo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left\">As Thai people continue to mourn the loss of their beloved leader, they must also look to the future. The only son of King Bhumibol,\u00a0<strong>Maha Vajiralongkorn<\/strong> (\u0e21\u0e2b\u0e32\u0e27\u0e0a\u0e34\u0e23\u0e32\u0e25\u0e07\u0e01\u0e23\u0e13), will now ascend the throne as the tenth monarch of the Chakri Dynasty. Famous more for his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/asia\/thailand-new-king-crown-prince-maha-vajiralongkor-bangkok-poodle-tattoo-a7361021.html\">unique wardrobe, playboy lifestyle, and poodle named Foo Foo<\/a>, he&#8217;s not exactly admired as much as his father was. Needless to say, it will certainly be an interesting time of transition in Thailand. For now, at least, the country and its people are busy remembering King Bhumibol and all that he did for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"237\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/6502673305_43f2a706ac_z-350x237.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/6502673305_43f2a706ac_z-350x237.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2016\/12\/6502673305_43f2a706ac_z.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Today marks a somber occasion in Thailand, as people continue to grieve over\u00a0the loss of their beloved King on what would have been his 89th birthday. The official period of mourning will last an entire year &#8211; a sign of just how loved King Bhumibol was by his people. Let&#8217;s learn a bit about how&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/the-kings-birthday-in-thailand\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[479970,432153,432155,479969,479971,275445,275470,275465,10179],"class_list":["post-3076","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-hm-the-kings-birthday-thailand","tag-holidays-in-thailand","tag-king-of-thailand","tag-kings-birthday-thailand","tag-new-king-of-thailand","tag-thai-government","tag-thai-holidays","tag-thai-monarchy","tag-thailand"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3076"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3082,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3076\/revisions\/3082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}