Blessing or offering?

[AustinRacing]

This morning my lovely neighbor gave me an orange from a fruit plate she was carrying back from the shrine in our village that she had placed since NYE. My Thai friends call it “offering”. It’s either the guy doesn’t like fruit or it is placed there to be “blessed” then the offerer takes it back and eats it. It’s fair enough for me. What gets me is the drinks. A red Fanta usually or water. But why do they open it and put a straw in it. It renders it a waste. Why not do it same as the fruit and not open it so they can collect and consume it. How about instead a shot of Thai whisky in a glass? It will evaporate by the next day giving the satisfying feeling that the guy drank it. I can only imagine how profitable Coca Cola’s red Fanta is in Thailand with so many shrines. A marketing scheme perhaps? Imagine starting a business that targets drinks for shrine offerings. It’d be lucrative. How and what product would you do?

[Kwasaki]

They already give all sorts of drinks as you say it's an offering and thai culture way of givings thanks to their Buddha.

To interfere or criticize is not welcome.

[josephbloggs]

Quote

A red Fanta usually or water. But why do they open it and put a straw in it. It renders it a waste. Why not do it same as the fruit and not open it so they can collect and consume it. How about instead a shot of Thai whisky in a glass? It will evaporate by the next day giving the satisfying feeling that the guy drank it. I can only imagine how profitable Coca Cola’s red Fanta is in Thailand with so many shrines. A marketing scheme perhaps?

Ah yeah, that explains all those hundreds of "use Red Fanta for your shrine" TV commercials I have seen over the years..

 

Jeez.

[ChrisP24]

I had wondered about the open Fanta bottles on some shrines - - I initially thought someone was being disrespectful by leaving their partially-consumed soft drink there, until I saw several more and figured that it was instead some sort of accepted tradition. 

[bbko]

On 1/3/2022 at 9:21 AM, AustinRacing said:

A marketing scheme perhaps? Imagine starting a business that targets drinks for shrine offerings. It’d be lucrative. How and what product would you do?

The old tradition of leaving out milk & cookies for Santa Claus comes to mind.

[Swiss1960]

Most every shop and most every Thai household offers food and drinks to the ghost, which will keep evil and mischief from them. Some Thai build a shrine (the mansion for the ghosts), have the shrine blessed by a Shaman, and then they need to offer food and drinks every day. This will also give them wishes that might be fulfilled. Same as giving food to the monks and praying for the winning lottery ticket.

Red Fanta is popular, because red is for many (but not all) people the color of luck. And of course, not being stupid, the beverage industry is using this superstition for their profit.

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, Swiss1960 said:

And of course, not being stupid, the beverage industry is using this superstition for their profit.

How exactly?  

[AustinRacing]

2 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

How exactly?  

I think the drink maker’s profit on this is serendipitous. Perhaps opportunity exists for a ‘targeted’ campaign by a clever person to market “wat drinks”. I don’t know maybe get some dude to be the face of it