The FLOWER FESTIVAL IN CHIANG MAI
" oh the scene is beautifull lots of people swarming the area, beautifull display of cultural attires, you have to go to the flower festival". Those were the words of my ethnicity lecturer, and indeed this festival was no understatement. During the 6th-8th of this month, chiang mai hosted the famous flower festival, the festival includes ornamental garden flower contests, floral floats parade in the morning and beauty pageants. The parade begins at Chiang Mai Railway Station and passes Nawarat Bridge and ends at Nong Buak Hat Park.
this bubbled alot of excitement amongst its people old and young as well as the Thai studies students. " oh its very beatifull" my friend pek a Thai student said so i was curious and excited to find out how so, first hand.
As my alarm went off i quickly dressed and scurried down to the "base" as we call it( the front of Payap), and waited as everyone loaded their cameras ready to capture unmissable snapshots. After embarking the car we laid extra emphasis to the songthaw driver to ensure we were there on time to avoid being late for the event. Finally after about 25 minutes of driving around closed streets and junctions, we arrived the scene and behold.. the sight was beautiful and serene, i saw more people than i did on an average day. Children hung on to thier parent's hand as they slided through the crowd, we got friendly and curious stares as we walked around in our group. The parade started almost immediately after we arrrived.
Different groups of traditionally dressed participants passed by the excited crowd and you could hear the thai people say "oye sway mak mak" (very pretty). I observed that there were more women than men in this event, so i assumed the men were not just as thrilled to attend as women. i also noticed there were alot of foreigners at the scene so it was more of tourist wanting to experience the event around than Thai people,i later confirned this observation as a friend told me she was more relaxed at going to the event as she had done so alot when she was younger and in previous years.
So i took alot of exciting photo's as the parade progressed, different culture representatives including the "hmong tribe" which i had a particular interest in and was fascinated by passed with their bright pink coloured patterned skirts. The festival was spectacular in general. Each group that took part gave an insight as to what their culture holds dear and values.. We later took a walk around as clothes,flowers and food stands were displayed for the audience and participants, eventually we rented mats for 10baht.Different families settled near i noticed that the families in thailand have a soft spot for their children, parents are particular about the welfare of their children, i watched as a father sat with his child of about 3 years old as he fed the pigeons fish food, i couldnt help but admire him finding time to patiently sit with his child for about 30 minutes, this contrasts the activities of the male folk in my country as being with the child is predomiantly the mothers duty.
The festival served as an eye opener to me on Thai culture and life style i therefore encourage you all to attend the flower festival next year.. it is indeed, spetacular.....
0 comments:
Post a Comment