Scenes that would be considered unusual in western countries are common enough that even we expats eventually barely give them a passing glance. This offering of food and drink, set on modern styrofoam trays, conveys the traditional intent of paying homage to spirits. Not a Buddhist tradition, it nonetheless is practiced widely by Thais, keeping alive the animist beliefs of their pre-Buddhist ancestors. This scene is near my school, and is refreshed on a regular basis, perhaps to please the spirit of a relative who died at the spot in a traffic accident.
2 comments:
This is a custom in central-southern Italy, too. A bouquet of flowers, both fake (oddly colorful) and real (almost immediately withering to a sad memento) are fastened around a tree or a guardrail to mark the spot of a hit. In Greece I recall passing many small replicas of Orthodox churches on pedestals beside the mountain curves to visit the Meteora monasteries, with the same meaning.
People leave flowers and often erect a cross near fatal car accident sites in the States as well. The mini-church pedestals are not seen in the U.S.
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