ปีเผาหลอก And

[DavidHouston]

From a discussion regarding the selection of the new Prime Minister:

“ผู้ที่จะมาดำรงตำแหน่งนายกรัฐมนตรีจะต้องเป็นคนที่มีความสามารถทางด้านเศรษฐกิจ เพราะปีหน้าจะไม่ใช่ปีเผาหลอก แต่จะหนักกว่าคือเป็นปีลอยอังคาร หากเอาคนที่ไม่มีความรู้ทางเศรษฐกิจมาบริหารบ้านเมืองก็อาจจะแย่ได้”

“The person who will serve as Prime Minister must be someone with capability in Economics because next year will not be a year _________________ but will be even more difficult. That is, it will be a year of ________________ . If we have someone who is ignorant of economics to administer our political system, it might become very tough for us.”

Please help me understand in this context the meanings of “ปีเผาหลอก” (Lexitron: “เผาหลอก [V] lay down the flower under the coffin before cremating; put a flower; joss-sticks and candles under a coffin”) and “ปีลอยอังคาร” (Domnern Sathienpong: ลอยอังคาร, to cast one’s ashes on the water).

Thanks.

[kriswillems]

Hi David,

Interesting question. It's the first time I hear this expression.

This website has more of these expressions:

http://board.palungjit.com/showthread.php?p=1551344

เป็นปีเผาหลอก

ปีเผาจริง

ปี “เก็บกระดูก”

And then there's a word out or your text:

ปีลอยอังคาร

These words are the different step of a funeral seem to refer to the economical situation (the last is worse than the first), at least that what the examples on google seem to indicate.

That they compare an economic recession with a funeral is understandable (they are both difficult situations). But I don't understand why the last step of a "funeral" is worse than the first.

I hope a Thai person will give his/her opinion about this.

Edited December 5, 2008 by kriswillems

[tgeezer]

Hi David,

Interesting question. It's the first time I hear this expression.

This website has more of these expressions:

http://board.palungjit.com/showthread.php?p=1551344

เป็นปีเผาหลอก

ปีเผาจริง

ปี "เก็บกระดูก"

And then there's a word out or your text:

ปีลอยอังคาร

These words are the different step of a funeral seem to refer to the economical situation (the last is worse than the first), at least that what the examples on google seem to indicate.

That they compare an economic recession with a funeral is understandable (they are both difficult situations). But I don't understand why the last step of a "funeral" is worse than the first.

I hope a Thai person will give his/her opinion about this.

Except perhaps that หมอก means pretend and the other steps are real.

[kriswillems]

Thanks tgeezer.

That makes sense. The real thing (เผาจริง, real burning) is more serious than the first step (เผาหลอก, pretended burning, i.e. with flowers, joss-sticks and candles) so the situation is worse!

The last two steps (เก็บกระดูก, ลอยอังคาร) are almost never used to compare with an economical situation (on google). I think the writer just invented a new expression, slightly different from the existing expression (with เผาจริง and เผาหลอก).

Edited December 5, 2008 by kriswillems

[chinnotes]

Well, my knowledge of Thai is very limited...so I may be absolutely wrong...

I understand อังคาร = planet Mars. Of the next year I heard the expression ปีเข้าอังคาร which seems to be an expression of horoscope and means something very serious and evil will come next year. ลอย may be ลอยมา...

เผาหลอก as I understand it means a kind of burning, but it will be over after a short time, will not last long (like burning straw) and is not really serious as "coming Mars". I do not think that เผาหลอก has anything to do with the Chinese พิธีกงเต๊ก where mock money (so-called hel_l bank notes) are burnt...

But, as I said already, my Thai (and I am afraid my English, too) is very limited and I may misunderstand all...

Erwin

Edited December 5, 2008 by chinnotes

[tgeezer]

Well, my knowledge of Thai is very limited...so I may be absolutely wrong...

I understand อังคาร = planet Mars. Of the next year I heard the expression ปีเข้าอังคาร which seems to be an expression of horoscope and means something very serious and evil will come next year. ลอย may be ลอยมา...

เผาหลอก as I understand it means a kind of burning, but it will be over after a short time, will not last long (like burning straw) and is not really serious as "coming Mars". I do not think that เผาหลอก has anything to do with the Chinese พิธีกงเต๊ก where mock money (so-called hel_l bank notes) are burnt...

But, as I said already, my Thai (and I am afraid my English, too) is very limited and I may misunderstand all...

Erwin

They don't burn anything in a เผาหลอก just put the imitation ดอกจันทน์ under the coffin, the idea is that everybody gets a chance to symbolically have a hand in the cremation I think. You would have seen it on the tele. lately, the flowers are white things which look like bows, the real flower is expensive apparently, or scarce. If you are right about the อังคาร let's hope it is only serious not evil.