During my visit to Thailand a few years ago, I woke up one morning and headed out for a day of bumbling about as tourists generally do in foreign countries. To my surprise almost every Thai person on the street was wearing yellow. Perhaps one in a 100 were not in this colour. A sea of yellow, and not just any shade but a rich, creamy and bright sunny yellow.
What I later found out was that in Thailand each day of the week is associated with a colour. Monday happens to be the King‘s colour, yellow, and as a nation Thais celebrate his health and well-being by wearing his colour.
Your colour is determined by which day of the week you were born on.
Sunday is Red
Monday is Yellow
Tuesday is Pink
Wednesday is Green
Thursday is Orange
Friday is Light Blue
Saturday is Purple
The two things that I found the most endearing about this discovery were the Thais’ devotion to their sovereign, and, on a more mystical note, how I felt this spoke to me.
On the first point, what I love about a country being in love with their monarch is that it is so hard to find positivity in relation to head’s of state. As a globe we all seem to uniformly hate politicians no matter who we elect or have foisted upon us. And I’m sure it’s just the British part of me, but I adore a love of monarchy. That there is this semi-magical figure head who is looking out for us all (though they do not directly rule the country or the government). Anyways I just find it adorable that a whole country celebrates their king on a weekly basis.
As to the second point, quite simply, I was born on a Wednesday and green happens to be my absolute favourite colour. My daughter was born on a Monday and when I was recently trying to pick out decorations for her first birthday I was drawn to the sunny yellow ones. But like the decent of monarchy, this point is also tinged with nostalgia. In North America at least, we live in a world where it seems like the magical/mystical side of us is constantly being suffocated, and so these little details bring me joy to think that this ideology is still flourishing elsewhere.
I saw many truly beautiful things on my trip and I’d love to go back and revisit them all; however, that sea of yellow shirts and their meaning made me feel something wonderful. Those are the moments that make a trip.
Conflicting Messages 