Teacher Respect Ceremony in Thai
by
Sharon White
Ceremony of paying respect to teacher is held on the third Thursday of every January. It is a Thai traditional ceremony in which students need to pay respect to their teachers. It is all students’ intention to make this ceremony. It is a traditional ceremony of my high school.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS5nH7W-eKk[/youtube]
In 2002, which was my last year, the ceremony was held on Thursday 17. The auditorium was set for the ceremonial place which was decorated gracefully. The door facade was decorated with many beautiful and colorful flowers. In addition, the fragrance of these flowers was very nice like the smell of perfume. Next to the door facade there was a ceremonial area. In front of the stage there was a brown podium, which was adorned with the white embroidered cloth. The stage was embellished with yellow and green cloths that were the colors of my high school. There were many white chairs, which were covered with unbleached cloth that were placed on the stage. The white chairs were divided into three lines. They were the chairs for teachers. On the left side of the stage there was a grand orchestra, which composed of all kinds of Thai musical instruments. At the back of the stage there was a big poster, which was written neatly as “Teacher’s day in the old Thai style. The ceremony started when the door opened and the president of the ceremony, teachers and honor dignitaries entered the auditorium. Students were standing in two lines which were separated on both sides of the pathway. They turned their faces toward each other. When the teachers walked in the auditorium, students began to sing “Oh-koon-kru-ka (Oh!my beloved teacher)”, which created a cordial welcome to all teachers. While students were singing, they were saluting by placing their hand palms together and raising them to the face (Wai or Thai salutation) at the same time. They bowed and rose gradually like domino. This was the special characteristic of the ceremony. When the teachers were on the stage, students sat facing toward the stage. Then the master of the ceremony, who was the president of senior students, gave a meaningful and impressive speech to teachers. The speech was concerned with being grateful to teachers and how teachers treated students as their second family, since they had taught students many valuable lessons from how to read and write the ABC’s to being aware of the world nowadays. They had been significant guides, like a candle that lighted students’ lives to the future. Moreover, the teacher was like a ferry-boat. Teacher provided knowledge to students and led their paths to success, like a ferry-boat which took passengers to reach opposite side without dangers. Reaching the opposite side did not mean that the relationship ended. In fact, the relationship between teachers and students never ended and died. The speech was very touching and profound and made many people in the ceremony cry. When the speech finished, the grand orchestra began to play old-style Thai song which made the ceremony perfect. The representatives of each class walked from outside to the auditorium. They held bouquets of beautiful flowers, which were put into a special tray. Each kind of flowers in the bouquet had its own meaning. The first one was called “Dauk-kem”. Daul-kem is a red flower, which has the shape of a needle. It is believed that it is the flower of intelligence. The second one was called ” Dauk-ma-kur”. It is a green flower, which is believed that it is the representative of effort. The last one was called “Yah-praek”. It is not a flower but it is a kind of grass, which is symbolized obedience. In addition, they put a candle in the tray in order to show the respect to the teachers. The representatives of students crawled and went down on the knees with palms pressed together. Then they gave the flowers to the teachers. The next step was awards ceremony. There were many kinds of awards and scholarships for the students who had good average grade. When the name of the first student was announced there was the clamour of applause. The student, who got the award, got a very big smile when she took a picture. It was an honored ceremony. People had been applauding continuously from the first person till the last persons awarding. Although I did not get any awards, I felt that I already got an award. I was very lucky that I had an opportunity to study at this great school. This was the award of my life. The ceremony finished by senior teacher’s blessing to all students. Moreover, she told her impressive stories about being teacher to students. When she finished the speech, all teachers began to walk out from the stage. Students turned faces toward each other again and they sang ” Pra-koon-tee-sam”, which was another meaningful song. The Students did the same thing as in the beginning. They saluted by placing their hand palms together and raising them to the face like a domino while they were singing. It was the most beautiful picture that I had ever seen. The Ceremony of paying respect to teacher is really meaningful to me. I believe that success in ones study needs to pay respect to teachers. I am a student so I spend a lot of time at school. Therefore, teachers play a major role in my life. All of the memories about my high school teachers are very impressive ones, including this ceremony. It is always in my mind and I will keep it forever.
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Teacher Respect Ceremony in Thai
