Wai Kruu Day

Wai Kruu Day: Teacher Appreciation in Thailand

13 June 2013

June 13^th was Wai Kruu Day at our school, a day for honoring teachers (kruu) in Thailand. Wai is the traditional Thai way of greeting (hands pressed together, slight bow of the head); the word also means the deep wai, a reverent bow performed three times on one’s knees with head down and arms stretched out.

Classes were not held the day before Wai Kruu.  The students spent most of the day making bouquets and garlands – each homeroom made one, and almost every student made her or his own as well.  Younger students had a few flowers tucked into a cone of rolled-up banana leaf secured with a toothpick.  The older students’ creations ranged from larger banana-leaf bouquets, to white jasmine blossoms stitched together in a ring, to elaborate floral arrangements in pots or vases. Many bouquets also included a little bundle of candles and joss sticks.  Classrooms were littered with stems, petals, leaves, and other by-products of the creative process.  The students cleaned up before going home.

The next morning, many students had their bouquets with them during the flagpole ritual – inevitably a few flowers fell by the wayside before the Wai Kruu ceremony. After flagpole, the students filed into the assembly hall and sat on the floor.  Teachers took turns speaking to the students and walking between the rows to keep things orderly. 

The ceremony opened with speeches, chants, and prayers.  All the students seemed to know when to chime in and what to do. Then the Vice-Principal mounted the stage, bowed to the altar and the portrait of the King and Queen, and performed a deep waai before taking a chair. My fellow-teachers nudged me into line to go up on the stage too, insisting that I sit in the front row next to the Vice-Principal – so typical of Thai hospitality, always giving guests the “best” seat, no matter how fervently we may prefer to be a little mouse in the background.

The Thai teachers were wearing their uniforms in honor of the occasion. Thankfully, I’d worn a long skirt to camouflage the faux pas when I crossed my legs at the knee instead of demurely at the ankle as per Thai etiquette. The village headman and several other community members joined us on the stage as well.

Then every student – about 600, give or take -- crossed the stage with his or her flowers, starting with the kindergarten students.  By twos, they knelt and bowed three times before the altar, then walked on their knees to form a line of kneelers before the row of seated teachers and community members, bowed deeply, and handed their bouquets to us. We in turn handed the flowers to the row behind us, where they were collected by older students and taken to a display table.  After everyone had left the stage, girls in traditional costumes performed a Thai dance to conclude the ceremony.

As an outsider sitting in on a ceremony such as Wai Kruu, you get a feeling for how deep the Thai sense of community is. Everyone seems excited and happy to be participating (sure, a few students fidget, but they are children after all), and everyone knows what to do – because they’ve been doing it all their lives, since before they went to kindergarten. The ceremony reminds everyone that they are all part of the community – and lets us foreigners get a glimpse of what that means.

If you are interested, you can learn more about Wai Kruu by googling it – or, you can even learn how to make a Thai garland by googling “flower garlands Thailand.”