I never dreamed Christmas would be such a big deal here in Bangkok. There are decorations in every mall (and there's a mall on just about every block), so things are looking pretty festive. The grocery store in Siam Paragon is even playing Christmas music.
Our school Christmas program is on the 25th. In the past, the American teachers coordinated it. This year, for whatever reason, the parents volunteered to take over. We were totally cool with that.
They've invited a performing group to come in and act out a Christmas play for the students. In a department meeting, Sutima showed us some brown sack puppets featuring horses, cats, pigs, and other animals.
She said we would need to make one for each student to use during the show. There are 720 students in Prathom.
We looked at each other and looked back at her, confused about why the students needed barnyard puppets during the Christmas program.
The performing group would be leading the children in singing "Old MacDonald." Festive, right?
Fortunately, Nummon acted as our advocate and convinced the other teachers it would be too much work for the kids to use them in just one song. Reason triumphs, for once!
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WOW! This is something I didn't know about Bangkok. Tell me, how do you think Christmas is understood? is it a secular or religious holiday? is it merely an excuse for commercialism?
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't they just give each kid a brown sack and let them make their own puppet? That would make more sense.
ReplyDeleteAnna - An excuse for commercialism, for sure.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Sturdy - Letting the kids make the puppets was proposed later. But we'd still have to make all the copies of animal heads, which is extra work and a big waste of paper!