Chinese New Year's Parade

     Last Friday our hosts Nett and Anders took my son and I to the Chinese New Year's parade in Thai Meaung. This was a most interesting, and enjoyable!, experience. The action started at the Chinese Temple, which is, from what I understand, the place of action for many festivities in town. In the morning people had set out tables of confectionary turtles: big ones, little ones, big ones with little ones, all through the square
around the temple. They were all red, and had various decorations on them, from iced dragons to peacock feathers. My understanding is that these were offerings to the Gods of the temple. These turtles were on display all morning, until just before the parade preparations began.







     Just after noon the more active preparations, from a spectator's perspective, began.  People appeared, milling about in the square with even more in the temple.  Incense was set alight, drumming began, the occasional firecracker was set off, and children with flags and dragon costumes appeared.

   
     Things became quite noisy, crowded, and hot.  Small palanquins appeared, ranging in size from 5 to 8 ft, approximately.  These were of two types, one which consisted of a chair, presumably for a person to sit on, and another which resembled small temples.

These, I was told, were for the statues of the Gods which would soon be removed from the temples, embued with their God's presence.

     Inside the temple, other preparations were proceeding. I could not see much other than a lot of smoke and people moving about, but, since the idea was for those participating to become possessed by the various Gods represented in the temple I am assuming that this is what was happening and the increasing noise and activity level indicated progress in this.

     The noise and activity level inside the temple continued to increase until, somewhere around 1:30, a path was cleared in front of the temple doors and the God statues began to appear. These were quickly and discreetly placed in their houses, and the curtains closed.  Following upon the heels of the statues were the possessed individuals.  Their appearance was rather more showy, with the individuals gyrating around to the music of the drums, and the spectators being careful to avoid looking them in the eye.  The possessed individuals made their way over to what I will call the piercing table, upon which was a selection of metal rods ranging from perhaps 3 to 5 ft in length, and about 1/2" in diameter.  Each

possessed individual chose a rod, or two, which was then slowly slid into their cheek on one side of their face, and then out the cheek on the other side.










     And now it was time for the parade itself.   Palanquins, God statues, carriers, possessed individuals, drummers, spectators, we all set off towards the main street in town.  Being careful, of course, to avoid the rods sticking out of the sides of the possessed individuals heads...

     Once we reached the main street, the crowd dispersed somewhat, with the main participants(these being the palanquins, the carriers, and the possessed individuals) taking center stage and the spectators (including myself and my hosts) falling back.  We retreated to the shop front of my host's parents, where they, like so many other shopowners, had set out a table of offerings for the Gods.

   
     Many shop owners had also set out firecrackers, which would be taken by the participants, lit, and then tossed under the feet of the palanquin carriers.  













    We waited and waited, and then, there they were!  The parade was coming our way!

    First to arrive were the enclosed statues and their carriers, accompanied by a man who would stop and bless the shop owners.  

This was relatively quiet. Following this, however, was more excitement, as this was where the possessed individuals again made an appearance, this time to the accompaniement of the noise and smoke of firecrackers. Those firecrackers that shopowners had put out were now being put to use... they were collected, lit, and then tossed among the feet of those people following along with the possessed individuals.  This created a lot of noise, smoke, and, well, burn marks on the carriers' legs and clothing. 


     And then, finally, after lots of smoke, banging, and drumming, the parade was done, at least for us.  It continued down the road, of course, and then eventually made its way back to the temple.  After about two hours of excitement and heat, however, my son and I were done, happy to have experienced something completely new in this land of smiles.