Wai Kru Day

Today we celebrated Wai Kru Day which is a day of respect for teachers. "Wai" is the bow of respect in which you place the palms of your hands together and put them up near to your face. People of inferior status always wai to their superiors. "Kru" is an ancient word for teacher which carries a lot of connotations. It implies that teachers deserve respect because teaching is a very heavy, difficult and important job. This morning there was a ceremony and the students all bowed to the teachers and sang an ancient song about teaching. Then they presented us with these amazing golden bowls filled with flowers arranged in designs. The vice president of our school came and made some offerings to the Buddha shrine. Then a student read an essay about teachers but I couldn't understand it because it was in Thai. Apparently this holiday has been celebrated for about 500 years and every school has this day at the beginning of the semester. It always occurs on a Thursday because that has traditionally been the special day for teachers. Even the flowers the students gave us have symbolic meanings such as endurance, knowledge, patience, etc. Our office is covered with wreaths of jasmine and roses and decorations made from palm leaves and incense. Today, the teachers all had to wear traditional Lanna clothes so I will post some pictures soon showing this style. I felt very happy this morning and proud to be a teacher.