An Easter Greeting

A hillfield in February where the vegetation has been
cut and left to dry for a month or so. Note the people
walking along a trail on the bottom left.

I remember lessons over the years relating Easter and spring time. Jesus was dead but rose from the grave on Easter, just like many things seem dead over the winter but burst forth in spring time with new life and new hope.

It’s not a bad comparison I think, but not one that can apply to all parts of the world. What about Thailand where there really is no “spring” season? In fact, March – April, the Easter season, is famous in Thailand for being the hottest, driest time of the year and it can truly be blast-furnace hot. Add to the soaring temperatures, clouds of dust from several months of zero rain, and smoke from innumerable ground fires and the burning of agricultural fields. Especially in our days in Mae Sariang, there were many days during the Easter season where the air was a hazy orange from all the smoke as well as triple digit hot.

A still smoldering hillfield typical in March-April

The absolute hottest, driest thing we would do in Thailand is hike through the recently burned “slash
and burn” hill fields in March and April. To prepare a village’s fields for planting, usually in February which is mid-dry season, all the trees and vegetation growing on the mountainsides that were to be that year’s rice fields were cut down and left lying to dry out. The cut vegetation would dry for a month or so until it was ready to be burned which happened to be around Easter time. Then, the village would work together to burn off everything, leaving bare ground to be planted when the rains would start in May or so.

Dee Waa and I walking along the base of a hill field

With 100+ temperatures and no shade, the black, ashy fields would absorb the heat, amplify it, then radiate it back to us hikers. Sometimes the trail would take us through still smoldering fields adding additional heat and smoke to inhale. It was tough walking with no place to rest, so we’d just keep walking.

Burned off fields or no, it was very hot and very dry everywhere. Most life looked to be wilting, shriveling up, leafless and drying out. There were no April showers and no springtime “bursting forth” like in the US. Yet at the same time, there were a certain few plants that chose this time of year to bloom. Maybe most notably, the flame tree would bust out in showy, red-orange blooms making a splash of color in an otherwise desolate landscape. But a few other trees and plants would bloom as well making a marked contrast to their hot, dry, wilted surroundings. Not only that, but the traditional mango harvest season peaks in March-April or so, during this hottest, driest, most dead looking time of year.

I don't have any flame tree photos, but here's a
photo of our neighbor in Mae Sariang in
front of her shop with some dry season flowers
in bloom.

So my first impression of not being able to compare Thai’s Easter season climate to Christ’s
resurrection was wrong. In fact, maybe the hot, dry, desolate looking landscape of Thailand’s hot season makes an apt metaphor for the feelings and mood of Christ’s disciples and followers in the days after Jesus was crucified. And, the blooming of plants like the flame tree in the midst of apparent desolation is an apt comparison to the joy and hope the resurrection of Jesus brings at this time of year. Indeed, like the mango, through Christ’s rising again, our lives can bear fruit even when everything around us looks bleak. So whether it feels like a US spring time or a Thailand hot season, Happy Easter to all!