============================================================== To reach ALL SJD members, please send to sjd@satjadham.net ... Do NOT include any other addresses when sending to the list... Include as LITTLE of the original messages as possible........ Message sent by: Amphephone Phettaphong *** Announcement: *** Please send your member fee to Victor if you haven't done so. ============================================================== Sabaidee took qon, SJD’s forum’s quiet as usual, except Ai Kongkeo’s "Along the shore of Mekhong River", and Deon "Phi Kongkoi" keep us entertained. As we’re all know, Christmas and New Year has passed. Yeah Ah huh… Valentine’s Day has just gone by, too. Enough of Western culture! You know what I was thinking? I know, its still February, and am sick and tired of snow. I was thinking of Laos New Year already!!! I know, Laos New Years was 53 days away to be exact. But I like to think and plan ahead. Along I have a little story to share with everyone. You can added on if you like… Laos New Year 101 Where good things in life are meant to be free!!! Are you ready for this? This is undeniably the most CRaZy & FuN festival in Laos, Songkran Festival is April 13 - 15 ! Oh yeah.. wet wet wet! smile.. LOTS of smile and happy people. If you ask me what is the best time to be in Laos. I would say during Songkran Festival. As a kid, we all look forward to this long holiday where we get to splash water at each other, and strangers alike. April 13 to 16, is Laos's traditional New Year, hot Summer days, a perfect time to cool-off. Lot of kids don't really know what’s the background tradition behind the water fight, so we won't spoil the mystery, and let you search for it elsewhere.(Maybe it's because I simply don't know it myself (((@^_^@))). What a lot folks care about is the fun, smile and laughter that pour down with the bucket of water all across the country. On these days, it seems like everyone is a friend of everyone else, and the country is one big happy party town. Drive by Splashes. If you are in the mood for water fight, there are two place to be, in the back of the pick up truck, or on the side of the street. On this day, as you look around, you’ll see a kids and everybody wanting to go out and play, young and old. There are no strangers, there are no generation gap, no social class, just folks shedding out their formal social gestures and be what they really want to be. No suit, no ties, no diplomatic talks, that can escape the water spray. Its the real thing, and its everywhere, way cooler than Three Musketeers, its about "All for FUN and FUN for all" ! This is Laos New Year's day, bringing all of us back to the basic. It seems New Year day more or less define the character of a culture, it shows what people really values. Here in the west, X-Mas and New Year focuses on exchanging gift, where you have to prepare months ahead of time, saving up money, panic shopping, stressed out about the Post-X-Mas bills, more worries to add up to an already busy life. It pretty much reflects how complicated and materially driven the Western value has become. Laos's traditional New Year day, people just prepared to go to a temple and then the kids get wet and wild. This is where sincere smiles and laughter is worth more than any wrapped gifts can give. This kind of simplicity is what I really appreciate. Everything changes, and Laos culture is no exception. As "Modern" Laotian people are becoming more materialistic, their lifestyle becomes increasingly complicated. When people starts forming values and expectation based on material ownership, they begin to separate themselves with another by social class "high society", "lo-society", etc; which makes the Songkran holiday that much more valuable. On these few days it seems that water was able to wash away pretentious mask we put on. What's left is a happy face of a child, a kid that has been waiting to jump out and dance. There are rarely any occasion that you get to see this kind of joy & friendly attitude from one "adult", given to a perfect stranger. So Songkran will always be sp! ! ecial, not only because of the water fight, but because it allows all of us to take a mental break from rigorous work trying to maintain self image just to fit in and to be accepted in this overly-complicated society. Everyone seems to fit in and accepts each other during Songkran. Now that's what I call a real "Happy" New Year!!! Have a good day, Amp _____________________________________________________________ Email Powered by Everyone.net _ ***************************************************************** Visit SatJaDham Homepage at: http://www.satjadham.org (or .net) *****************************************************************