Songkran signals the approach of the rainy season. it’s still hot and the weather can produce epic lightning storms. My girlfriends always insisted on shutting off every electrical device in the house other than the fans. They would shiver in fear of a lightning strike. Everyone had someone who had died out in the rice paddies.
“Me too.” I added one stormy evening.
“Have friend die in nah-khao?” Thais don’t think westerners have anything in common with their lives.
“yes, but not in America. In Vietnam. My friend was a soldier. He was walking in a rice paddy during a storm. Lightning struck him dead. One second.”
“Chai. Wí-chian.” Everyone would nodded their heads and even more so upon the mention of the goddess of lightning Mêk-laa. Thais would cover their heads and say, “Not say name.”
Thais are only a little superstitious. No more so than me. During a thunderstorm my older brother and I had sat on our roof to watch the storm. A lightning bolt struck the tree nearest the house. It split the trunk in half. After that exhibition of nature i realized you never sit on a roof during a lightning storm.
Sometimes superstitions are common sense.
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https://www.mangozeen.com/2009/04/11/peace/royal-cliffs-rumble.htm