Couples in Thailand tie the knot on elephants on Valentine's Day

By Vorasit Satienlerk

 

Couple pose with marriage certificates during a Valentine's Day celebration at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Chonburi province, Thailand, February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Fifty-nine couples in Thailand got married while riding elephants on Sunday, in an annual Valentine's Day mass wedding ceremony at a botanical garden in a province east of Bangkok.

 

Dancers and a band led the procession of elephants and couples and a local official, also on an elephant, oversaw the signing of the marriage licence.

 

"For me, I've been planning for a long time that if I were to sign a marriage licence one day, it must be an extraordinary event," said groom Patiphat Panthanon, 26, sitting beside his 23-year-old bride.

 

The elephant-back wedding is an annual event at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Chonburi province which usually attracts up to a hundred couples. But this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the numbers were down.

 

Kampon Tansacha, president of the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, said that due to strict screening protocols for visitors, people were feeling safer and have started to come back to visit the botanical park, which showcases recreations of landscaped gardens from around the world.

 

Thailand's tourism-reliant country has yet to lift a travel ban imposed last April to curb the outbreak, keeping most foreign investors away.

 

(Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-15

 

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If the brides throw the solidified elephant dung over their shoulders to see who will be married next rather than the flowers, gonna be lots of single thais

5 hours ago, webfact said:

keeping most foreign investors away.

Why would foreign investors want to put their money into Nong Nooch?  They could just buy a house and throw 51% of their capital away.

Anything to help the plight of the elephants. Not much food around for them nowadays.

If mass wedding ceremonies were banned at Government offices for safety's sake, why was a private company allowed to hold this potential super-spreader event?

Give it a year or two and I bet a few of the guys wish they had taken the elephant.