Thai Wedding Ceremony

Thai Wedding Ceremony

One of the most important occastions of the person's life after birth is the wedding ceremony as it places value on that particular moment when man and woman have decided to be united in a bond that will influence the rest of their lives. Therefore, the ceremony must be held in a beautiful and sacred way. Above all, astrologers will be consulted beforehand in order to find out if the stars of those to be married are compatible and if so what should be the auspicious day and time for the ceremony. But mostly the ceremony will be held in August which is considered as the most auspicious month for wedding.

Usually in the countryside, a marriage takes place at the age of 20 while in the city this maybe late, up to 28 - 35. This depends on the readiness of the persons who want to enter into marriage. At the same time, nowadays most young people choose their own marriage partners while arranged marriage is very rare.

The most interresting part of the wedding ceremony is a procession of "Khan Mark" (offering items) as relatives and friends of the groom dance their way to the house of the bride with their hands full of offering.

The engagement ceremony must take place before the wedding, however, some couples may prefer to hold the engagement and wedding ceremony on the same day as a means of saving money. The engagement ceremony is usually done through the offering of an engagement ring to the girl while the wedding cremony will be incomplete without the offering of "Sin-sod" which is the money to be given to the bride's parents by the groom's parents of the amount they demand.

The wedding ceremony begins in the morning with the chanting of monks, then the couple and relatives offer food to the monks who, after their meal, will chant again while the senior monk will go around to bless the couple and the whole gathering with holy water before they go back to the temple.

After the dinner reception, the last ceremony to be performed is the sending-off of the bride and groom to the room specially arranged with the decoration of roses. The ceremony will usually be guided by the elder villager and eventually, the ceremony ends here.
Information on this page mainly comes from a book called "Essays on Thailand" by Thanapol Chadchaidee. It is used here with his permission. The book contains 60 essays about Thailand written in Thai and English. Click here if you want to buy it!