Thursday 4 June 2009

Chinese house warming party

Chinese house warming party

There are many Thais who have Chinese descendants. Especially on Samui, there's plenty of proof in the building style of the old wooden houses around the island which originate from Hainan, too bad the link to the article about Hainese legacy has expired, it was a very interesting read.

To get back on track though, Samui is mainly Buddhist and I've been to and witnessed a plenty of house warming parties where the good old monks showed up and chanted away for a while and than get the best food in the house, cooked by the family who's house was blessed.

In all that time I never saw or heard of the Chinese equivalent until a few weeks ago when I drove around and saw what pretty much looked like a Chinese house warming party.

In contrast to the Buddhist version, there's only one priest or monk and it was a very cheerful occasion, at least the part that I witnessed.

The monk or priest handed out fake or rather good luck bank notes to the people attending but whilst doing so he made a very strange high pitched tone, which added very much to an almost surreal and funny experience.
It was an interesting experience and the people involved were friendly enough to have me take pictures, which you can see above.
Anybody that knows more about the Chinese style house warming parties, feel free to add your knowledge as a comment to this post.
Camille


No comments: