Thai rescuer celebrates Halloween by working in devil costume

A Thai rescuer celebrated Halloween yesterday by donning a devil costume representing the Thai-style messenger of death called Yom-ma-thut.

The 53 year old rescuer, Narongsak Noppasit, from the Jaturatham Pratheep Foundation in the Panthong district of Chon Buri province, shared a picture of himself in a fancy dress costume on the foundation’s official Facebook page yesterday with the caption “Ready to serve!”

Narongsak portrayed the Yom-ma-thut character by painting his entire body red, wearing black eye shadow and lipstick, red devil horns and a shirtless traditional Thai costume.

According to Thai belief, Yom-ma-thut appears to people who are about to die and leave this world. Yom-ma-thut is responsible for taking people’s souls to hell or heaven, depending on their actions, or karma, throughout their lives.

The image caught the attention of many Thai netizens.

“Are you going to help people or take their souls?”

“Great costume!”

“If I faint and wake up to see you, all diseases should disappear, haha.”

Narongsak later revealed to Channel 3 that he spent 3,000 baht on the costume. His wife encouraged him to dress up on Halloween to make people, colleagues and medical professionals he worked with happy. He added that he got good feedback, especially from the people he helped.

Thai police officers also got into the spirit and successfully arrested a wanted thief while dressed in ghost costumes. The officers received a tip-off that the suspect would be taking his girlfriend to see a ghost movie at a shopping mall in Bangkok’s Rama 3 district on Halloween night.

The officers posed as theatre staff, wearing ghost masks, and waited for the suspect at the Halloween-themed set. They approached the suspect and invited him to take a picture in front of the set before revealing themselves and making the arrest.

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