The Northern Thai Calendar and Its Uses
7
Every day of the lunar phase is either good or bad for having new clothes
made, performing wedding rites, buying farm animals, placing newly harvested
rice in the household granary, felling trees, building houses, clearing fields,
and moving to another town or village. Few families are as conscientious as
that of Nauy Inda, my main teacher in Nan province. His family keep a special
wooden calendar [pakkatuen) by the door of the granary to remind them whether
or not the day is favorable for removing grain from the bin to take to the
village mill. This calendar represents the days of the lunar phases by groups of
dots interspersed with blank spaces. The number of dots indicates how many
spirits are lurking about waiting to share the family’s rice supply. It is only
safe to remove grain from the bin for milling on a day showing a blank space,
unless of course that day is a Day of Wilting. The women of Nauy Inda’s house
follow this rubric scrupulously.
There are several other formulas dealing with the days of the lunar
month. One called “The Locations of Kdlakinl” [kaalakinii tok) concerns
Kdlakinl, a “goddess of Adversity” (McFarland 1944: 98) of whom the
Muang know nothing other than her name. This text specifies that on each
day of the lunar month, Kdlakinl is associated with a certain place, thing or
class of people, and that activity concerning these places, things or people
should then be avoided 4 . “The Sick Days” [wan puay) is a similar type of
rubric, prescribing activities which on certain days will bring sickness to the
perpetrator. “The Days on which Heads Are Aligned on the Pillow” (wan hua
Hang maun) represents, in diagrammatic form, auspicious and inauspicious
days of the lunar month for marriage rites. “The Days of Sinking and Rising
Up” [wan jom wan fuu) prescribes certain days of the lunar cycle for each lunar
month on which it is inadvisable to travel or to be ordained into the monkhood 5 .
The eighth and fifteenth days of the waxing phase and the eighth and
fifteenth (fourteenth in odd-numbered months) of the waning phase are Bud
dhist holy days. These are known as Precept Days [wan siin), in reference to the
five vows of abstention which the congregation takes during temple services
on holy days. Outside of the Buddhist lenten period, attendance at these ser
vices is not high. The importance of the Precept Days to most villagers lies in
their being days of rest. No rites other than Buddhist rites or rites concerning
the temple guardian spirit can be performed on Precept Days. Heavy work,
including agriculture, carting wood, or milling rice, is banned. These prohibi
tions apply regardless of whether or not a villager actually attends the rites
at his local temple. In certain areas of northern Thailand a cash fine is imposed
on anyone found working on a Precept Day (see Velder 1963:85). Many
Muang believe that sexual intercourse should be avoided on Precept Days.
4 The Kdlakinl formula is similar to the Siamese text “Agnirodha” given by
Singxo (1972:419-20) and Thep (1960:173-74). Another formula, also given in the
appendix, associates Kdlakinl with a different part of the body on each day of the week.
5 By contrast, the Siamese formula of the same name is based on the occurrence
of certain days of the week in each lunar month (Singxo 1972: 420-21; Thep 1960: 177—
78).