HOLIDAYS IN SIAM.
Siamese holidays are very different from
those of Europe and America. They have
no Christmas, for, as a nation, they know nothing
about Christ. Their New Year holidays, strange
to say, are not celebrated in the first month of the
year, but in the fifth, which corresponds to our
March or April. On one of the three days that
they then observe the doors of the temples are
thrown open, and the people—women and children
especially—dressed in their best attire, enter,
and, bowing down before the idol, make offerings
of flowers. The more wealthy have prayers
and preaching at their own houses, when they
feast the priests and make presents to them.
During these days all are allowed to gamble,
and men, women and children engage in games
of chance with all their hearts. On New Year's
Day we, in Christian lands, pray our heavenly
Father to watch over and bless us and our
friends through the year. In this heathen
land the king has companies of priests on the
tops of the walls around the city proper going
