In Thailand you often see a white cord tied around a person’s wrist, or tied to a new building, or a new car ! This is a form of blessing, wishing for good fortune in the future.

The other night we were at my eldest sister-in-law’s house when she began hanging white cord around the house, when I asked what was happening the missus tells me her sister wants good luck because so many people she knows have died. Indeed, during the 4 weeks or so of cool weather that passes for winter here my wife and her family were going to at least one funeral a week. I don’t know if it is normal practice all over Thailand but the local wat baan lets off firecrackers just before every cremation, so every couple of days I could hear “bang,bang,bang……bang,bang,bang” and then the smoke started….

The wife told me that our neighbour was doing our house, sure enough when we got home that night there was the lucky white string tied to one of the front porch posts.

And when I went for my usual morning walk I saw that it stretched about a kilometer down the road, linking all the houses.

And then when I went into town later it was also that way too, and within a day or two the whole town is connected in a web of string leading to the wat.

Inside our house it is tied to the wife’s Buddhas :

And the scooter gets it’s good luck charm too :

And then it all leads to the town wat, where they had a prayerthon for three nights:

(photo from a local facebook page)

My knees are too old to sit crosslegged on the floor for hours so I respectfully declined the invitation to go 🙂

I must say that since the ceremony I have not heard any firecrackers from the local wat so perhaps it’s not complete mumbo-jumbo ?

Or maybe it’s just that the weather is warmer and the endless round of New Year parties and weddings has finally finished so people  are not stressing their bodies so much ?

Who am I to say ……..