Loi Kratong Beauty Contest

Sunday, 21 November 2004

This afternoon, Matt picked us up to go to our student Pop's competition in the Loi Kratong beauty contest at Big C. There was a lot of running around first, taking her mom to get Pop's identification, parking in the crowded shopping area, and then standing for the next 6 hours (oh yes, I'm not kidding, it was 6 hours!) watching these little girls (and one boy) all decked out in traditional, ornate, Thai dresses, with hair plastered in all sorts of fashions, decorated with gold crowns and fancy jewelry. And, they had tons of makeup on. All the children were about from grades 1 - 4. The contest opened with these young professional dancers who danced better salsa and ballroom dancing than some adults I have seen. They were amazing! Then the contest itself started. The students had a talent competition and a question and answer session, where they had to pick an envelope and were asked a question. The talents varied from tae kwon do, a popular club sport here at our school (a lot of the competitors were students from our school), lip syncing (another popular "sport" here - now I understand why teachers ask us if we are going to have our English Program students lip sync some 80's American song for performances...so silly, but that's what they do here!), dancing in some skimpy outfits, and our student Pop did a speech and song in English. The questions they were asked were quite difficult I thought. Some questions were about the riots in Southern Thailand, drugs in Thailand, and about Loi Kratong festival. Although Pop didn't end up winning (the prizes ranged from 1,000 to 5,000 baht), I was very glad when the competition was over, as I did some grocery shopping, and was ready to go home! Standing in the bottom of a department store watching kids in a beauty contest wasn't what I thought I'd be doing all Sunday afternoon/evening.

Loi Kratong is this week, on the 26th. I'm so sad I'll be missing all of the traditional events. Loi Kratong is supposed to be one of the most romantic days/events of the year. It happens once a year, and it depends on the moon, but is usually held sometime in mid to late November. People get dressed up in traditional Thai dress, schools have parades, towns like ours have festivals with lots of vendors selling arts and crafts and things, and people float beautifully arranged (with intricately carved fruits, vegetables, and flowers) candles on the water. You can read about it in all the tourist books, like Lonely Planet. It happens only once a year, and I'm gonna miss it! I'm off to Hawai'i (I know, again!) this Wednesday (and arrive on Wednesday morning), just in time for Thanksgiving, to be a bridesmaid in my cousin Steph's wedding on Sunday, and then I turn 29 years old on the 29th. I leave for Thailand on the 30th, but don't arrive in Thailand until the 2nd. I am excited to go home and be with my family, but sad that I'll be missing Loi Kratong! I'll have to go to some of the shops that open tomorrow and see the chedi all lit up (it looks like Disneyland with the chedi all decorated with lights...it will have to be my Christmas tree this year!).