พระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว ทรงพระกรุณาโปรดเกล้าฯ ให้อัญเชิญผ้าพระกฐินพระราชทาน เพื่อน้อมนำมา ถวายแด่พระสงฆ์ผู้อยู่จำพรรษาถ้วนไตรมาส ณ วัดธัมมาราม นครชิคาโก รัฐอิลลินอยส์ ในวันอาทิตย์ที่ ๒ พฤศจิกายน ๒๕๕๑ นี้ โดยมี คุณเกยูร วงศ์กมลาไสย เป็นประธานจัดงาน พร้อมด้วยคณะกรรมการ อุบาสกอุบาสิกา และ พุทธศาสนิกชนในนครชิคาโก และเมืองใกล้เคียง
The Kathina Ceremony for monks simply means “joining hands for making robes.” For lay people, it means “offering robes to monks who have observed the three months Rains Retreat at a certain temple.” The Kathina Ceremony must be held within one month of the ending of the Rains Retreat. For the convenience of the general public, Wat Dhammaram provides this opportunity for you to come and join this ceremony as a part of the annual celebration for cultivation of meritorious deeds.
This year’s ceremony was a special occasion of because His Majesty the King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej presented robes to the resident monks at Wat Dhammaram through Mrs. Kayoon Wongkamalasai committees. On this occasion our temple, monks, with its Board of Directors, lay people around the Chicago area, and neighboring states were very grateful for this honorable gift.
*** Read update information about King Birthday Celebration & Gala Dinner Dance 2008 and view hotel map after this photo album***
Loi Krathong ลอยกระทง
Loi Kratong (ลอยกระทง) literally means 'floating basket'. In former times the kratong กระทง (baskets) were made from banana tree leaves or the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or Spider Lily Plant. Nowadays polystyrene is often used in their construction.
The ceremony is a fairly simple one, with the candles and incense being lit and the kratong pushed away from the water bank. A wish is then made, sometimes with the hands being raised in a traditional Thai Wai, as the kratong floats away with the current.
According to one Thai custom, people must keep their eyes on their kratong until it's drifted out of sight as there is a belief that the longer the candle is burning, the better the next year will be.
Very often, girlfriend will go with boyfriend as a pair to celebrate the festival. It is often said that you will know a Thai's true partner by noting who you see them floating a basket with. If a Thai asks you along to the festival there's a good chance they are interested in you for more than just friendship!
There is an old Thai proverb which says: "When a boy and girl float a kratong together, they will be lovers in this life or the next". Later on in the evening, there is usually a beauty contest, with Thai ladies dressing up in traditional Thai costume (ชุดไทย) and competing for the title of Nang Nopamart (นางนพมาศ). A chance to experience first hand the beauty of Thai women.
In Chiang Mai province in Northern Thailand, people also celebrate Loi Kratong, but in a unique fashion. As well as floating gratongs on the river, they also launch illuminated Lanna-style hot air balloons into the evening sky. They have their own special name for the occasion: the Northern Lantern Festival and the Yipeng Loi Kratong festival.
There is some uncertainty as to the origin of the Loi Kratong festival. Some people say the festival is in atonement to the goddess of water for having used and sometimes polluted her waters. Others that it is to offer flowers, candles and incense as respect to the Lord Buddha's footprint on the sandy beach at the Narmada river. It is also possible that it is derived from a Hindu festival paying tribute to the God Vishnu who supposedly meditates at the center of the ocean. Another explanation is that it is a way to pay respect to one's ancestors.
Whatever the true origin of the festival, it is certainly an enchanting one and a pleasurable time is guaranteed for all. Happy memories...
The Beauty Contest นางงามนพมาศ
The beauty contests that accompany the festival are known as "Noppamas Queen Contests". According to legend, Noppamas was a consort of the Sukothai King Loethai (14th century) and she was the first to float decorated krathongs.
ประธาน: คุณเกยูร วงค์กลาใสย
รองประธาน: คุณกุสุมา Johnson
Photography Credit on below images: Kriengkrai Kittivanich
The King Birthday Celebration
and Gala Dinner Dance 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Chicago Marriott O'Hare
8535 W. Higgins Rd, Chicago, IL, 60631
6 pm until midnight
พบกับนักร้องกิตติมาศักดิ์ สุเทพ วงค์กำแหง ร่วมกับวงดนตรีฤทัย ร่วมกับนักร้องจากทีมใบตอง ที่ท่านชื่นชอบ
Donation: $100, $80, student discount is available
Tippi
312-399-8532
Vallapa
708-423-5905
Surachai
224-766-9269
รายได้ส่วนหนึ่งสมทบทุนศูนย์บริการ Thai American Community Service Center.
*** The hotel is in Chicago between Higgins and S.Cumberland***
View Larger Map
'SAY NO' To Violence Against Women
'หนึ่งเสียงของท่าน ช่วยยุติความรุนแรงต่อผู้หญิง'
Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand signed on to UNIFEM’s Say NO to Violence against Women campaign at an official ceremony on 5 September to mark her designation as UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador in Thailand.
เมื่อวันศุกร์ที่ 5 กันยายน 2551 พระเจ้าหลานเธอ พระองค์เจ้าพัชรกิติยาภา ทรงรับเป็นองค์ “ทูตสันถวไมตรี” ให้กับ กองทุนการพัฒนาเพื่อสตรีแห่งสหประชาชาติในการต่อต้านความรุนแรงต่อผู้หญิง
Add your name to demonstrate that there is an ever-growing movement of people who demand that ending violence against women be a top priority. UNIFEM will hand over the signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25 November 2008, to support his efforts.
ขอเชิญชวนให้ทุกท่านโปรดร่วมลงนาม เพื่อเป็น 1 เสียง รวมพลังที่จะต่อต้านการใช้ความรุนแรงและล่วงละเมิดต่อเด็กและผู้หญิง ซึ่งในวันที่ 25 พฤศจิกายน 2551 ซึ่งเป็นวันสากลแห่งการยุติความรุนแรงต่อสตรี กองทุนการพัฒนาเพื่อสตรีแห่งสหประชาชาติ หรือ ยูนิเฟม (UNIFEM) จะมอบรายชื่อของทุกท่านที่ร่วมลงนาม ให้กับ นาย บัน คี มุน เลขาธิการองค์การสหประชาชาติ
Link to website : www.novaw.in.th
Dr. Joy
http://AmericanThai.net
Narong Prangcharoen
has new music debuting for Kansas Citians
Now, six years after arriving in Kansas City, the young composer gets a chance to debut a new piece for locals.
His 10-minute work “Whispering,” for an unusually voiced quartet, was commissioned by NewEar, a Kansas City ensemble that specializes in contemporary chamber music. It’s one of six new and recent works featured on NewEar’s program tonight at Unity on the Plaza.
Prangcharoen conceived “Whispering” as music about the planet and natural tragedies.
“The main idea is about communication,” he said recently. “So many bad things have happened: Hurricane Katrina, the cyclone in Burma, the earthquake in China. I feel like maybe the Earth is trying to communicate.”
Prangcharoen wrote the piece specifically for four of the core members of NewEar, which is how it got set on soprano saxophone (Jan Faidley), bass clarinet (Tom Aber), piano (Robert Pherigo) and percussion (Mark Lowry).
Another self-imposed challenge, Prangcharoen said, was his decision to use Burmese scales and tunings, which are considerably different from the Thai and Western musical elements with which he was used to working.
“I think it’s a very interesting synthesis of East meets West,” said David McIntire, NewEar’s artistic chairman. “He’s got an Eastern sensibility and philosophical outlook, combined with his exposure to Western technique.
“He’s absorbed a lot of French impressionism — Fauré and Debussy. His emphasis is on color.”
In its opening section, “Whisperings” spends a lot of time in the lower registers, with percussive piano and the bass clarinet drilling deep into the Earth.
Those passages explore the dark colors of the piece. But the work later ascends into a long and bright stretch of melody, with lurching, edge-of-your-seat rhythms.
After graduating from Illinois State University, Prangcharoen enrolled at the Conservatory of Music, in part to work with Chen Yi, the China-born composer who has built an international reputation.
Even though his works appeared on 50 or more concerts last year, prompting McIntire to call him a rising international star, Prangcharoen demurs.
“Compared to Chen Yi,” he said, “I’m still very small. I’m still working my way up.”
In the second of its four concerts this season, NewEar’s program also will present works by five other composers with Kansas City ties. Ensemble principals McIntire and Ingrid Stolzel, as well as Paul Rudy and William J. Lackey, are represented by recent pieces.
Another featured work, like Prangcharoen’s, takes its inspiration from nature.
Paul Elwood, a Wichita native working and teaching in Colorado, wrote “In Blue Spaces” while contemplating the desert landscape and the distant blue horizon outside Taos, N.M.
He was on sabbatical, spending part of his days on a cabin porch.
“From where I was sitting,” he said, “I could see dust storms rising, rain approaching.”
He captured his experience in a score for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello and solo bouzouki, the stringed instrument most associated with Irish, Greek and Middle Eastern music. The last will feature his friend Roger Landes, longtime member of the Kansas City Celtic music group Scartaglen, now living in Taos.
“Roger is one of the foremost virtuosos of the bouzouki,” Elwood said. “I based the piece loosely on an Irish reel, ‘The Star of Munster,’ and transformed it. And I built it around his virtuosity.”
Source: www.kansascity.com
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1 comment:
ทำไมจัดงาน ลอยกระทง เร็วจังครับ เพิ่งจะวันที่ 1 เอง !
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