THAI SCHOOL LUNCH PRAYER

In Thai schools, there are many chants and prayers said at morning assemblies and lunch.  Although the school where I work is bilingual with 800 students in their own English Programme building, all of these are said exclusively in Thai.  This leaves curious teachers like myself wanting to learn more Thai in order to understand what is going on (at least I can now [almost] sing the entire national anthem...phonetically).

When I take my students downstairs for lunch (in separate lines for the boys and girls), they are seated at long tables in the canteen (again, boys on one side and girls on the other).  Only when all of the classes are seated more or less quietly at the tables is the lunch prayer said.  A kind of grace, it is not really religious but more ethical.  It's to remind the students that they should eat properly and that they should be grateful to the people who provided them with the food. The children and adults wai while a school administrator or teacher leads them in the prayer, repeating each section.

I just found a translation of one Thai school lunch prayer done by a Primary 6 student.  I'm not sure if it's exactly the same as the one said at our school but the general content is probably the same:

"During the time that we eat lunch, don't speak or say things that aren't good.  Don't make a noise.  Take enough food for only one mouthful.  Chew the food into little pieces so that you can digest the food properly.  Before you get up from your seat, clean up your desk.  Put the plate or a bowl orderly into the enameled basin.  You mustn't waste any food.  You must eat it all.  There are many starving children in the world.  Pity all of the children that don't have anything to eat.  All of the food has a worth.  When you eat food you must have good manners.  Don't chew the food loudly.  Don't talk when you are eating and don't say something that is bad.  Don't laugh when you are eating.  Thank you to our teachers that take care of us and all of the cooks that make us the food we eat.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you very much."