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King's Big 8-0

Yesterday was the King's 80th birthday. Happy Father's Day, as the Thais say.

The King is beloved here like no other place. The unanimous admiration for him is well grounded. He has and continues still to work tirelessly on issues concerning ordinary citizens.

Every year, Father's Day is a major holiday, but this year extra observance has been taken throughout the year. An 80th birthday commerative seal (pictured right) is ubiquitously dotted across the nation. Every Monday, everyone wears yellow polos (with this seal) in recognition of the day of the week the King was born (Monday=yellow). However, wearing yellow is not excluded to just Mondays as you may gather from my photos.

I celebrated the birthday at my school with students and teachers. The evening started with everyone singing the King's songs, including a new one composed for this year. Dance and a candle ceremony (pictured below) followed, all along with a live televised feed of monks blessing the King in background.

A couple of articles of interest follow:

• Everyone tunes in King's annual birthday eve address. True to form, he offers suggestions and observations through stories, accessible for all Thais young and old, educated and uneducated. This year he used analogies of walking and hot/cold to emphasize country unity.
• He also touched on fashion in his speech, disbanding the notion that everyone need follow his color fashion sense. Indeed, at 80, he is still a trendsetter.
• Channel 3 encouraged people to knit small scafs for the King's birthday to be sown together. In the end, it became the longest scarf ever --3.6 kilometers.