boat relics - what is the deal - making merit, luck, etc.

[flashpanther]

What is the deal please in Isaan abut fishing out old wooden boats? If the locals find one they go ape. It's taken to the nearest wat, covered in floral decorations, some game finding a boat number (gambling), and generally seen as a joyful ocassion to make merit and surrounded by luck.

Something along the lines. I am not sure. Probably got all my interpretation of it wrong. Love the know more. anyone able to enlighten us all ?

Andy

[Pimay1]

It all centers around superstition. Thais are some of the most superstitious people in the world. Most of it is perpetrated by the monks i.e strings around the house to keep ghosts out, bad luck to start building a house in January, odd number of steps in a staircase, monks dreaming of lottery numbers and providing them to the flock just to name a few. Case in point. A monk in a temple of this village spread the rumor there was a lady ghost trapped in a certain tree. He went with a crew, cut down the tree and hauled it to the temple. People flocked from near and far praying to the ghosts for a lottery number. Of course as it was at the temple the monks were enriched by the "merit making". Just a typical scam playing on peoples superstitions. Same thing with the boat.