8 Chinese cities will host Thailand Fruit Golden Months Festivals as local governments there begin easing lockdown measures and travel restrictions. The director-general of the Department of International Trade Promotion made the announcement yesterday, saying the the festivals will promote Thai fruit exports around China.

“The campaign aims to increase the export of durian, mangosteen, longan, mango, rose apple, coconut, pomelo and banana. China will host the festivals from May to July in Shanghai, Qingdao, Nanning, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xian, Xiamen and Kunming.”

“For offline activities, sales booths will be set up at leading department stores in each city. As for online activities, the department and the local authorities will jointly host online business matching from May onwards to invite Chinese retailers to order Thai fruits online to sell in their stores as well as hold promotional campaigns with Chinese mobile applications, like Geso and Hema, to increase sales.”

“The department will also promote Thai fruits in other markets, such as Singapore, Myanmar and Laos in a similar manner once the local governments ease lockdown measures.”

In April, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, China opened 2 border gates in its southern Guangxi province to allow imports of Thai fruits from the Vietnamese side. Chinese are big importers of Thai fruit, especially Thai-grown durian.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand

Today is a public holiday in Thailand to mark Visakha Bucha Day, the most significant day in the Buddhist calendar, commemorating three defining events in the life of the Lord Buddha; his birth, attaining enlightenment at 35 years old, and then his death 45 years later, which all occurred on the full-moon day of the sixth lunar month.

Visakha Bucha Day is one of the most important Buddhist holidays in the Thai calendar and this year it takes place on May 6, 2020. It is important as it was the day of three important incidents that occurred during the life of Lord Buddha. They all happened on full moon of the sixth lunar month.

Traditionally, Buddhists gather at temples to perform the ‘wian tien’ ritual, walking in circles three times around the main temple building with lighted candles. But this year the government has urged Buddhists not to gather together for this ritual and, instead, celebrate the event at home with family.

Buddha was born in India some 2,500 years ago as a rich prince, but he left that life of luxury to seek out wisdom from the wise hermits who lived in woodlands scattered throughout the region at the time. He felt disappointed, however, and instead meditated under a Bodhi tree. There, he is believed to have attained enlightenment at the age of 35 and to have formulated the basic tenets of Buddhism. Later, at age 80, he died. Buddhists believe he then entered the state of “nirvana” and escaped all suffering, death, and reincarnation.

In Thailand, Visakha Bucha Day is a time when the devout visit local temples to “make merit,” by giving donations and engaging in various rituals. While there, they also listen to sermons on Buddha’s teachings, meditate, recommit themselves to follow the precepts of Buddhism, and offer food to temple workers. Some also set birds or fish free as a means of eliminating “negative karma”.

Australians and New Zealanders have stood outside their homes at dawn this morning to mark the annual ANZAC Day. This year’s tributes and salutes to the fallen who have served their countries at war have been from a distance. A new generation stood quietly at the entrance to their homes, in some cases wearing the medals of their relatives that served, to join in the 104 year tradition.

The national day of remembrance has become, certainly in the case of Australians, the most important day of commemoration and still attracts crowds for community parades and dawn services. ANZAC Day commemorates the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gallipoli, in Turkey, during World War I in 1915.

Whilst the ‘Diggers’, the original Aussie and Kiwi soldiers that served in the Gallipoli campaign, are long since passed, the spirit continues. Indeed the popularity of the day, and the message, has found a new voice in the last couple of decades in new generations.

Its original commemoration and thanks to the Diggers that served in the fateful Gallipoli campaign has now morphed into something that reaches the newer generations. The day now broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations” and “the contribution and suffering of all those who have served”.

Of course the traditional dawn services, gatherings and parades were cancelled last month along with the bans on restrictions on gatherings around the two countries. But, instead, people were urged to hold a candle in their driveways and live stream their personal services.

NZ PM Jacinda Ardern had already acknowledged the disappointment in the ceremonies being cancelled for the first time in history.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t show our support as a collective. As dawn breaks, we can stand at the end of those driveways, together in silence and pay tribute to those we should never forget.”

Australia’s PM Scott Morrison attended a closed dawn ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, which began at 6am and was broadcast nationally. Channel 9 covered the morning’s commemorations across the nation.

Usually, huge crowds gather at war memorials and community halls each year to attend dawn services But the home-bound tributes, no less significant or moving, included musicians playing the Last Post in suburban streets, while others shared pictures of poppy wreaths online and baked ANZAC biscuits (cookies) at home.

“ANZAC biscuits have long been associated with the ANZACs, a tradition established in World War I. It has been claimed that biscuits were sent by wives and women’s groups to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. They are a chewy treat made from oats, flour, butter and golden syrup.”

The Australia’s veterans group, the Returned Services League, encouraged “diggers”, now used broadly to describe service men and women, to call each other in lieu of the traditional marches and parades.

The two nation’s usually stage a joint ANZAC Day services at Gallipoli in Turkey, often a pilgrimage for many citizens, but these were also cancelled after travel bans made the grand service impossible. Once wartime foes, the Turks, Aussies and Kiwis now share a special bond, forged in war but remembered as a sacrifice of common people caught up in the tragedy of war.