Makha Bucha Day- February 9

Makha Bucha Day is a religious festival celebrated by Buddhists in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos on the full moon day of the third lunar month, which happened to be this past Monday. Thai language as Makha (Pali: Māgha). Bucha, also a Thai word (Pali: Pūjā), meaning to venerate or to honor. As such, Makha Bucha Day is for the veneration of Buddha and his teachings. It is customary for Buddhists to go to the temple to perform merit-making activities.

Alm's Giving
To perform our merit-making activity, a group of volunteers woke up at 5:30am to give alms to the monks. Because monk's only source of food is from donations, we packed 100 small bags of garlic, rice, sugar, and salt for them to use. Usually we would be able to pass out the food to all 100 monks, but since there were so many donations, we gave it all to one monk. Women are not allowed to touch monks, so the men of the group had to present the alms. After a special blessing each volunteer received a yellow bracelet from the monk. We are not sure what this bracelet protects us from, but the orange one we received in Mae Chan wards off evil spirits or snakes.


Mae Sai, Thailand
Later in the day we were given the opportunity to go to Mae Sai to assist Child Life - Mae Sai in the building of a new road. Childlife (or "Baan Nana" in Thai) is a grassroots organization, providing direct intervention for children at risk in Maesai, Northern Thailand at the border to Myanmar (Burma). Baan Nana works to prevent the increasing numbers of street children and crime in society through its programs. The organization provides emergency and long term shelter, including education, medical care, food and clothing for 180 children. They are encouraging children and their families to imagine a future beyond a life in the streets, to gain experience working together for a better future.

During the rainy season, the road to Baan Nana is completely impassable because of large ruts that are a foot deep and wide. As a preventive measure, the volunteers put together their money and bought rock and laid it on the road to help prevent the issue come April.

We enjoyed going to Mae Sai and helping another organization. It was interesting to see the differences in NGO's throughout Northern Thailand - the kids were super cute and helpful too! They worked just as hard, if not harder, than the volunteers. They all put on the gloves and carried bags of stones from one side of the road to the other. Too cute!

After lunch we had one hour to walk around the Mae Sai Market. Once you've seen one market in Thailand, you've pretty much seen them all, so it wasn't all that exciting. Although, the gun and hunting selection was far superior than that in Chaing Rai or Bangkok. James claims they were pellet guns, but who knows. It wouldn't surprise us if they were real.

We heard that border control between Burma (Mynamar) and Thailand was pretty tight, but the only thing we could see separating the two countries was this small barbed wire fence and a creek. Supposedly if you want to cross illegally this isn't the place - you cross in the lush northern hills late at night. Emwee, one of the Mirror interns, who is originally from Burma, looks a little nervous standing so close to the border!

Candle Ceremony

After a quick shower and dinner we climbed back into the saungthaew to celebrate another Makha Bucha Day tradition - the candlelighting ceremony at the Emerald Temple. In the evening, each temple in Thailand holds a candle light procession called a wian tian (wian meaning circle; tian meaning candle). Holding flowers, incense and a lighted candle, the monks and congregation members walk around the temple clockwise three times - once for the Buddha, second for the teachings of Buddha, and the third thanking the monks for their service. Not knowing all of the Buddhist teachings - or anything about Buddha - made it hard for us to capture the full experience. Luckily we were able to enjoy the nice scenery, beautiful flowers and candles, and witness yet another Thai tradition that many tourist are not able to.