Wearing Black for Princess Galyani Vadhana

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On Thursday I was informed by one of the Thai teachers that all the teachers were supposed to wear all black or white on Friday in respect for the cremation ceremony for the princess, which took place over the weekend. The princess, whose full name is Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra, Princess of Narathiwatho and was the present King’s sister, died last January, and for some reason the time between her death and cremation has been protracted longer than usual. Teacher Ruby and Teacher Julie from the Philippines were teaching here last year when she died and said that all the teachers (and others in various professions, too) had to wear black (or white) for 100 days, the official mourning period.

I thought that it was a 3-day event (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), but then we noticed at Christie’s, the “Irish Pub” in Ban Phe, that liquor sales in bars were forbidden for 5 days. According to a little internet research I did, the ceremonies will actually go from November 14-19, and, according to some reports, they will cost 300 million baht (about US 8.8 million dollars). At Christie's they had a black cloth covering the bottles and a picture of the princess pinned to the cloth. When we went in to eat dinner on Friday night, they told us about 5 times that they couldn’t serve us alcohol because of the princess and the police patrolling. 7-Eleven, next door, was still open for liquor sales, though, apparently. Curiously, though, the next night (despite the sign and black cloth that was still intact) we saw farangs drinking beers at Christie’s. All of the ceremony was televised and could be seen in every open doorway, in stores, restaurants, homes, etc. We watched some of it on Saturday and there was a lot of pomp and circumstance, but also music, dance, and puppetry. As usual, I wished I could understand exactly what was going on from the commentary.

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