Father's Day (King's Birthday)

So in Thailand Father's Day is the same day as the King's birthday because they see him as the father of their country. He has been king for 69 years, so it has always been this way. Decorations around the city and all throughout Thailand began weeks before to prepare for the day! We got an extra day off because of this celebration giving me a long weekend! On Thursday at school, we had our own celebration for the King and everyone was told to wear yellow. This means that the King was born on a Monday. All the days of the week have corresponding colours and this than becomes "your" colour. I found this very interesting because I have always loved the colour green and turns out Wednesday's colour is green (the day I was born on). So I wore a nice bright almost neon yellow shirt... well I stuck out more than usually because apparently there is only one shade of yellow in Thailand and everyone else was wearing that colour and almost the same shirt, and next to them my shirt looked green and I was so embarrassed but they gave me an A+ for effort. We had a monk come to our school and accept offerings, this is something that is very common for schools to do around the King's birthday. I was not told about this, so I was the only one without an offering, but the monk did come and put blessed water on my head and wished me good luck with my time in Thailand. It was very cool to experience this and makes me want to look into a temple visit where I can meet some more monks and ask them some questions about Buddhism and their lifestyle because I find it very interesting. Then on Friday we had a Father's Day celebration! The theme of the party was superheroes because all Dad's are heroes! Invitations were sent out the week before inviting all of the Dad's to come in for the party and accept a gift, play games, and eat food! I never really know what is going on, they give me little bits of information to keep me in the loop, but when I arrived the next day... WOW! The decorations they set up were amazing! I would have loved to have helped but I didn't know they were doing this! Next time there is a party, I know to come early even if they don't ask to set up lol! I was told to wear all black that day and when I arrived I was giving a green cape! I felt just like a superhero! Chairs were set up all in the yard for the parents to sit on, superhero symbols were hanging from strings and there was even a superman cut out! I was amazed and excited to take this idea and use it for myself in my own classroom one day :) Slowly parents and students began to arrive and when everyone was settled we began the day! First we had the Dads sit on chairs and their kid would come up to them thank them for being the best Dad ever and give them a superhero card and a pin that said my hero! Then we set up different stations with games and they had to successfully complete the challenge to go to the next station and when you finished you would win a prize (everyone won something). The school had a station set up with coffee, chocolate milk, and this red drink I see everyone drinking but still don't know what it's called. It is very sweet and nothing I have ever tasted before. They also had buns with either custard or ham and cheese in the middle, which are also very popular in Thailand I have noticed. The party was over around noon, and most parents took their kids home, but some had to go to work so for the rest of the day we just played games with the kids. This day was so fun, but also very hard. Made me miss my Dad very much. A few tears might have been shed, and a parent caught me... it was embarrassing (something I do frequently to myself lol).