Wai Kru Day at Lertlah

Every year in Thailand, they have a day set aside to honour teachers called "Wai Kru Day." Wai is the traditional Thai greeting where the younger or lower ranking person puts their hands in front of their chest, chin or nose in a sort of prayer pose and bows to the older or higher ranking person. The other person then bows back. "Kru" means teacher. In this video, the kids are chanting a respectful recitation to the teachers and we're pretty sure there was something in there about how great Thailand is and how much they all love the King! As you can see, Stu doesn't mind the attention either. :)

This is one of Stu's grade 4 classes as they Wai each other. Part of the ceremony includes all the kids lining up and giving flowers, candles and incense to the teachers. It was a really cool experience to receive so much respect from students. The whole school smelled really nice too! I think we'll start petitioning for Wai Kru Day in Winnipeg next year.


Here is one of Stu's sweetest grade 4 students giving him flowers. Part of honouring the teachers is that the kids keep their heads lower than the teachers. This is usually not a problem for Stu, except when he's sitting down.