Considered as a tradition, every year Sarasas Ektra School has conducted an Offering Ceremony and Wai Kru Ceremony. So too, in the academic year 2020 we have conducted a ceremony to ask for blessings from Mother Mary and St. Dominico Savio for the administrators, teachers, students and personnel who work in the school to be safe and have wisdom and strength to operate things efficiently. We also acknowledge gratefully the good work of teachers in carrying on the best traditions of Thailand. The Secondary Department held their ceremony on 30-31 July 2020. Kindergarten and Primary Department held theirs on 3-4 August 2020 at the Auditorium, Building 6.

             In the first part of the ceremony, Father Joseph Chetdanai Chaiphueak, administrators, teachers and student representative offered flowers to Mother Mary and St. Dominico Savio as well as placing the garland in front of the Vice-president Mrs. Pensri Yongkamon’s image.

 

             Father Joseph read the Gospel and then gave the admonition to students that ‘Jesus Christ has said: you must all love one another’. This is the basic teaching of Jesus on living together in society. Today is Wai Kru Day, so we must show respect, love and gratitude towards teachers and also share love for the society, the nation and the world in which we live. A new word that has arisen during this time is ‘New Normal’ where everyone has a new way of life. Therefore, ‘I [Father Joseph] would like you to try using this moment to increase social responsibility, dvelop a civic mind, and give love for civic society. Social responsibility and attention to duty are the fundamental values that every student should have’. After that, everyone sang the prayer for the communion and began the ceremony of anointing the books. That concluded the academic year Offering Ceremony. 

             Then followed the Wai Kru ceremony which commemorated teachers and students who came together to sing the chant of gratitude for teachers and then the song ‘The Third Grace’. Then student representatives in each level gave garlands to class teachers and administrators before the hand washing ceremony for new teachers and students. This is a Catholic washing ritual meant to cleanse the unjust mind and remove all sins. All new students and teachers will have been cleansed of what wrongs they have been done before, whether intentionally or not. Everyone has now joined the Sarasas Ektra family by willingness to comply with the school rules and policies, and by loving each other as brothers and sisters, bringing love to unite us all. Washing hands before getting the holy thread is important because water is the basis of life and a symbol of rebirth, including washing away blemishes and sins.
 

             Finally,Director Pisut Yongkamol gave certificates to students who have received scholarships for various academic abilities and for excellent achievement at each year level.

The Admonition of Director Pisut Yongkamol

             Everyone will succeed if you have dignity, or Ektra’s Pride, which means to be proud and ambitious in a good way, and to be humble and patient. As long as you have perseverance, life will be permanently stable. Whenever you are not being patient, if because only thinking of yourself, you are selfish. Everyone might be selfish at times, but you should also think of others, recalling to mind the words ‘you must love others as you love yourself’. The footsteps you take today will shape your future. God said ‘Your body is a sacred temple; it should not be tainted with anything bad. For Yr.11 students this year must be inherited, and Yr.12 students are in the time of succession. I wish, therefore, that you will have reconciliation, to be united in everything. Senior students please remember that ‘the hands of the giver are always higher than the hands of the receiver’. High is not just a high position but a higher mind, and it will be in the memories of junior students forever. I wish that everyone will be able to enter a good university, that you will have prosperity, love your family, friends, teachers, and yourself a lot.

 

	Infant Department	Primary Department	Secondary Department