The Day Before A Thai Wedding The day before a Western wedding is the 'Stag Night' and the 'Hen Night'. In northern Thailand it is not really the same. As soon as the groom-to-be can get off work, the full-on party begins. It is more sedate with the bride-to-be who will spend more time with her parents. The son will often just spend all his time with his mates, mostly sleeping 'under the table', if you understand what I mean. The day before the wedding is kept for spending with parents for both parties. The day before the eve of the wedding is also a extraordinary day as the parents of both houses set up their parties with the help of friends and family. This is an all-day event and people drink, sing and even dance as they are making the preparations. On the eve of the wedding, people, especially women, will meet at the homes of the bride and groom in order to cook. If the wedding is a large one, this could begin at 4-5 AM, but it usually starts at 8 AM. Guests are welcome at any time after this, but non-cooks or non-helpers will usually hold off until at least 9 AM. The laggards might not arrive there until midday. The whole day is a party of cooking, eating, dancing and drinking, usually to the accompaniment of live music or a disk jockey. It is not at all unusual to have skimpily-clad dancing girls putting on a performance as well. The music will get loud enough to become heard a block or two away and no-one would venture to complain about the noise from such a joyous event. However, not everybody is invited to most weddings as they are usually held in the backyard. Bigger weddings might be held in the Temple. I have never been to a village in Thailand that does not have its own Temple. Some small villages of merely 500 residents have two Temples. A Temple used to hold numerous monks, but nowadays 9-12 is standard. It is reasonably cheap to hold a wedding or a wedding party in a Temple, but most households do not because Temples are 'open ground' and you may get more 'guests' than you catered for. Gate-crashing is not unheard of. As the evening develops, people will be required to sing a song and there will be dancing. This will go on until around midnight, which makes it a long day and the wedding day for real starts at about 7 AM the next day. The parents of the groom are expected to help prepare the food at the bride's house the next morning. This means meeting all the closest friends of the bride's parents and is a good way of bonding. it usually results in both families and all their best friends becoming fairly close for many years to come.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on numerous topics, but is now concerned with Khao Phansa - The Candle Festival. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Package Holidays to Thailand.