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The day before a Western wedding is the ‘Stag Night’ and the ‘Hen Night’. In northern Thailand it is not quite the same. As soon as the groom-to-be can be off work, the full-on party starts. It is more sedate with the bride-to-be who spends more time with her family.

The son will often just spend most of his time with his mates, usually sleeping ‘under the table’, if you know what I mean. The day before the wedding is reserved for spending with parents for both parties.

The day before the eve of the wedding is also a special day as the parents of both parties set up their parties with the help of friends and family. This is an all-day affair and people drink, sing and even dance as they are making the preparations.

On the eve of the wedding, people, particularly women, will meet at the dwellings of the bride and groom in order to cook. If the wedding is a big one, this could begin at 4-5 AM, but it usually begins at 8 AM.

Guests are welcome at any time after this, but non-cooks or non-helpers will usually stay away until at least 9 AM. The laggards might not get 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 strange to have skimpily-clad dancing girls putting on a performance as well.

The music will be loud enough to be heard a block or two away and no-one would venture to complain about the noise from such a happy 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 inhabitants have two Temples. A Temple used to hold numerous monks, but these days 9-12 is normal.

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 have more ‘guests’ than you bargained 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 cook at the bride’s home the next morning. This involves meeting all the closest friends of the bride’s parents and is a good way of bonding. it normally results in both families and all their best friends becoming fairly close for many years to come.

Owen Jones, the author 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.

There are different traditions with regard to Thai weddings, as there are in the majority of countries. The two most predominant religions are Islam (in a couple of provinces near to Malaysia) and Buddhism in the overwhelming majority of Thailand.

However, in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Thais are Buddhist, there are regional variations in the process of getting married. I live in northern Thailand in Uttaradit, about 25 km from the first Thai capital of Sri Satchenalai, which implies that the ceremonies from this region are the oldest in Thailand.

The process of getting wed in Thailand begins with a young man and a young woman. That seems obvious, but Thais do not usually undergo arranged marriages. Traditionally, if the couple move in together, they are betrothed, but this tradition is breaking down.

If the young couple are certain that they would like to get married, then they ask their parents to arrange the details. The first thing to arrange is the dowry. In Europe, the dowry was traditionally paid by the bride’s parents, but in Thailand, it is paid by the groom’s.

Until 1932, it was very common for men to have mistresses called ‘Little Wives’. The practice is officially discouraged, but it still goes on. After all, there is no social security and if a woman is left by her husband, voluntarily or through an early death, she has to find a way of taking care of herself and her children.

This is the origin of the reason why the groom pays the dowry. If the man fails to take care of his ‘First Wife’, she can leave him and she has her dowry to sell so that she and the kids are not destitute. It gives her a breathing space to find a job or a new husband.

Most women choose a dowry of pure gold. Thai women prefer less, but purer gold than the average European. Thai gold is usually 98%-100% pure and is normally 24 carat.

So, the parents of the loving couple meet and they discuss ‘a price’ – we prefer the term dowry. The dowry comes in two units: gold and cash. As in English we have a pound sterling and a pound avoir-du-pois, Thais have a Baht as their currency and a Baht as a weight (of gold).

One Baht of gold is 15.2 grammes. Internationally, a Troy ounce of gold is 31.10 grammes. So, one Baht of gold is merely less than half-an-ounce. The Thai Baht in currency varies as do all currencies, but is now , quite stable at 30 Baht = $1.

A typical dowry may be two Baht in gold and 50,000 Baht in cash. The two Baht in gold goes to the bride as an advanced divorce payment and the 50,000 Baht goes to the mother-in-law. She can do what she wants with this money.

She would normally spend most of it on the wedding party and the remainder, she would normally give to the newly-weds. Honeymoons are not normal in the rural north, but as the economy is growing, young people do increasingly like to take a honeymoon.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on numerous subjects, but is now involved with Khao Phansa – The Candle Festival. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Package Holidays to Thailand.