Sunday #3, first day of rest.

This Sunday Danielle and I are taking it easy. Partially because our local guide is having elections today and partially because I have bruised something deep in my left foot. I am thinking about taking an extra day off tomorrow to let it heal.

The language lessons are going very well, I know introductions, a few basic questions, numbers up 999, plus dates and time. The Thai week is still rooted in their religion as each day carries the name of a certain God who rules a planet for that day. It is interesting to note that the western calendar also does this but not many people know of it. This is because in the west the days are named after pagan gods such as Freya for Friday and so on, and not many people know the old pantheon due to Christianity imposing itself so completely. The days also have colors and your lucky color is the one of the day that you were born on. I share mine with the Thai King of being born on a Monday so my color is yellow. Danielle's is green for Wednesday.

I found a more in-depth blog on the matter for those interested in such things.

Thai Colors of the Days, This post also has a link where you can calculate the day that you were born on.
Thai Gods of the Days

Another thing that I should remind everyone of is that although the country is 98% Bhuddist the Thai people hold on to their Animistic beliefs just as much. Many of these beliefs are Hindu in origin. So it is not uncommon to see worship and revrence of various Gods just as much as Bhudda.

This makes me wonder about the west, and how much culture and heritage we may have lost due to the complete overhaul that Christianity brought with it. Granted our calendar days and other traces give us a clue to this past, but how many people are even aware of these things that are right in front of us? What customs, superstitions, and beliefs have completely vanished from our culture? Although there are modern movements to restore what we can from our old ways; I find that most of these movements fill in the gaps with Christian and politically correct morality instead of trying to attempt an educated guess, or a truer synthesis in some other way. Personally I'd be happier if they would just leave it alone and say "that information has been lost" and work with holes in the system to be figured out later if possible.

Or we could take the Thai way and just pretend the two don't contradict each other. That doesn't suit me though...