Today was “Johny, the Bather day”! This is a day that the whole country knows about, but it is said that the people here in T-land are the most active participants. “Johny, the Bather day” takes place every July 7th. What is it? Well, it’s really just a day where people throw water on each other! All day long, you could hear screaming outside, and kids running around trying to get each other wet. (See above picture.) We walked to a nearby furniture store this morning and managed not to get wet, but we had a couple of close calls! People will even throw plastic bags full of water (kinda like water balloons) down from their 4th story balconies on people walking by on the streets. As we were riding in a taxi this evening, some people threw water at the car. Thankfully, the windows were rolled up! Why do they do this? Well, it really is a superstitious practice. They say that if someone gets you wet on this day, you will have good luck all year. All superstition aside, I personally think that it’s a fun day, especially if every July 7th is as hot as today was! Plus, the kids really seemed to enjoy the day!Today was also a very big day for weddings! As today’s date is 7-07-07, it is believed that if you get married on this day, you will have a lifetime of happiness. So, weddings were taking place all over the country! We heard on the news that in some of the bigger cities, court houses were going to stay open until late at night in order to marry all the people that were waiting to be married! Here in T-land, we saw quite a few wedding car processions too. Hopefully, all these newly married couples will have happiness in their marriage… and not just because they got married today!
We noticed another interesting cultural practice today. We were driving with a lady, her husband, and child to go look at an apartment that was for rent. David asked if the child was a girl, and the mother right away said, “no, boy”! We were a little taken back, for this boy had long hair! At least as long as Aria’s! Sure looked like a girl to us! David politely said, “oh, I just saw the long hair and thought that the child was a girl”. We then began talking about how here, the practice is that parents will let their boys’ hair grow long until they are three years old. When they turn three, they will cut the hair short so the boy looks like a boy. I had to think, maybe that’s why I’ve seen so many little “girls” running around!!! (There is a reason behind why they do this, and we’ve heard bits and pieces here and there. Yet, we haven’t heard the whole story, so we can’t make any definite conclusions right now. So, sorry, can’t fill you in on this one yet!)