Back in 2007 anyone thinking that Valentine's Day in Thailand was a purely commercial holiday for selling roses without a bouquet and red lingerie for your mia noi, the Culture Ministry's declaration of 10 Commandments of Love must have come as a surprise, especially since the list of the ten dos or don'ts only went up to nine.
So far my list is three.
#1 - Love with patience, so as not to become a young parent.
#2 - Love only one person.
#4 - Avoid the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.
I'll guess the other 7.
# 3. Love the other person as you love yourself, but no masturbation.
#5. Respect the wishes of the other person, unless the request is too weird.
#6. Get home at a good hour. Sleep is better than sex. Remember no touching yourself.
#7. School should come before sex, especially if it's with teachers.
#8. Do not take rides from strange men or even men you know who aren't strange.
#9. Girls, don't shine your shoes, because you know what boys are after.
#10. Boys, don't means don't, even when it doesn't mean don't.
Sounds good, until hearing that the Bangkok Police were ordered out of the barracks to foil any under-age couple from committing the sin of kissing, which the boys in brown consider tam nong klong tam - mai kao taa or inappropriate behavior.
That year of No the police patrolled after school 'danger zones' such as public parks, shopping malls and restaurants and evening risk like nightclubs, bars and love motels.
"If we find teenagers under eighteen engaged in inappropriate behavior like kissing, we will give them warnings and report to their parents so they can pick them up." A police moral authority stated before adding "Alcohol is definitely a catalyst for this kind of behavior, so we will keep an eye on underage drinking."
Seemingly the police feel that sexual interactions are heightening due to the excess western influences instead of the more prosaic boy meets girl.
So following Valentine's Day rules leads to kissing and then sex and the collapse of the traditional Thai values of sober modesty.
Better by your example you should lead the young into the future, especially since St. Valentine's Day celebrates a bastardization of a Roman holiday, when the pagans beseeched Lupercus to banish the wolves from the city on February 14. On the Eve of the festival the names of young girls were picked by the boys in hope they became lovers for the year or eternity.
Sounds familiar?
Strangely can't imagine the Catholic Church ever getting involved in the art of love except to tell people what not to do, as with the Bangkok police. But then the rites of the festival of Lupercas were hard for the Church to accept.
This abridged excerpt comes from http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&id=260
Teenagers and young adult males would meet at a cave below the Palentine to sacrifice goats or dogs. The skins of the animals cut into wet strips called Februa (from which we derive the name February for the month) and males would take these strips into the heart of the city and use them to randomly beat people (particularly women).
On the second day of the festival, each man would draw the name of one of the women who had been hit with the Februa, and she would be coupled with him until the next festival. (This was a voluntary coupling; the woman was under no legal or social obligation to stay with the man.) It was basically just an excuse to sleep with someone for a year without commitment or obligation. ________________________________________________
The collapse of morality or young people having a good time?
The Church knows best and banished St. Valentine to pseudo-saintdom with St. Christophe and St. Patrick feeling they could no longer condone a role in the propagation of a pagan love festival.
Personally I saw no under-aged kids kissing in Pattaya that year.
But if I had I wouldn't have snitched them out.
Boy meet girl
Romeo and Juliette
Is that so bad?
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