My Wife Feels Cheated Because Our Son Cannot Predict Thai Lottery Numbers
I actually wrote the following last year, but I thought I’d share it again on here. My son is still terrible at predicting lottery numbers so it remains topical – at least in our household.
Once again my son failed to correctly predict the Thai lottery; or to be more precise my Thai wife failed to correctly interpret his lottery number prediction skills. Unfortunately she went with the numbers he gave her in a dream and ignored the numbers he mentioned at bedtime two nights ago; she is now kicking herself for the missed chance. Two of the numbers he mentioned did come up ‘6’ and ‘7’, but they are not ones my wife went with. She took her chances with the more confident sounding dream son.
Thai Superstitions
This might all sound a bit bizarre to those people who have not had the pleasure of living with someone who firmly believes in Thai superstitions. My wife accepts many things that might sound odd to other people; mind you, there are lots of things that I believe in that she finds equally odd. It is really no surprise that my wife holds these beliefs so strongly; after all her father is a maw pii (spirit doctor) in Phitsanulok. She was brought up soaked in local beliefs and she sees no reason to change this just because she is now married to a westerner. I wouldn’t want her to; maybe my view of the world is the wrong one.
My wife really does believe that my two and a half year old son can provide lottery numbers. I have met many Thai people who claim that young children have special skills like this. This idea is supported by the media where you will often hear stories of proud lottery winning parents. It is almost enough to make you believe that having babies would be a great ‘get rich quick scheme’. If you had a few babies dedicated to predicting lottery numbers around the world you would soon be driving a Ferrari.
My Son Always Picks Winning Lottery Numbers
Since my son learned to count my wife’s obsession has gone into overdrive. I think he realizes this and is always firing out numbers at her. She only remembers the ones that win and blames herself for no realizing the significance at the time. He loves to count in English and Thai so my wife has a lot of data to choose from; it is little wonder that she is having so little success with his predictions. A lottery predictor who mentions every number is always going to be right, but the information will be practically useless.
Many urban Thai people are now as dismissive of these older traditions as westerners tend to be. There is still huge support for the old ways in Thailand though. It is not just babies who are believed to have special lottery number prediction skills; meditation is also seen as a way to get the goods. This has been commented on in the past by some famous Thai monks who find the obsession a bit un-Buddhist.
Apparently Ajahn Chah, a famous meditation master, would get frustrated with Thai people coming to his sermons looking for lottery numbers. He began prefacing his sermons by denying having any ability to predict numbers; this often had the opposite effect and would have people more convinced that he was going to provide really good numbers. Any digit he mentioned during his talk would be dutifully written down and if he didn’t mention any numbers people would make calculations based on the number of words he used in a sentence.
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The Ghosts of Thailand Should be Taken Seriously
Paul, we spent half of today’s Thai Language class discussing ghosts and superstitions of Thais, Chinese and other cultures, my own included. It was quite fascinating and amusing at the same time. I’d never be one to pooh pooh anyone’s beliefs, but as an outsider looking in, I do have to smile sometimes.
Don’t ever let the two of them loose in a casino 😉
Hi Snap, I think you may have a point there. I can just imagine my wife taking my son on a trip to Vegas and losing all our money – not that she’d have much to lose after she paid for the plane tickets 🙂 I grew up in Ireland and there was a lot of superstition; when I was younger I’d no problem believing most of it. I remember nights spent staring at moving statues, and terrified because I was sure there was a banshee nearby.
Paul, I don’t know any Thais who are big on the numbers – or maybe they hide it well? Sometimes they buy the tickets but they don’t spend their waking hours looking for winning numbers.
They do laugh about it though. If they come across an instance where someone would bet with the numbers, they bring it up.
In Brunei the Chinese would use the licence plate numbers from fatal traffic accidents. That always saddened me.
Hi Catherine, I suspect some sections of Thai society would be very dismissive of this type of thing. When we lived in rural Thailand finding the winning numbers did seem to be almost an obsession for a lot of people. I remember quite a few occasions when people tried to borrow money from me because they had been given winning lottery numbers. Even here in Minburi a lot of our neighbours are convinced that young children can pick lottery numbers.
“A lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.”
I think you may have a point I-nomad. On the other hand, some people enjoy doing it and there are worse ways of wasting money.
Good reading Paul. LOL
I can tell you, there is nothing like lottery day twice a month in the little village I stay. From earliest morning hours there seems to be one subject only, lottery numbers. Huge groups of relatives, neighbours and friends come together, to discuss the numbers.
Dreams? We, well actually it’s my wife, has them quite a lot. Well, basically twice a month since many years. It can go like this; she gets up in the morning and tells me, that her late daddy has talked to her in her dream. So, off she goes and buys late Daddies would be age at the time of dreaming, the year he was born, and of course the reverse numbers. Fact is, she still has to win yet.
For once, was my wife able to predict the right last draw number, 98. Of course you have to buy both numbers 98 and the reverse 89. Guess what number won? 89! Problems was, that she couldn’t buy those two numbers, because they were sold out.
You may ask, why 98? Ask yourself, how old was revered Luangta Maha Bua when he died? I know, some papers say 97, others 98, but still, coincidence..?
Anyways, keeps my wife happy and hopeful twice a week. So who cares really. I mean, it’s not like she spends fortunes in lottery.
I’m with you Paco, my wife only gets to do the lottery now and again, but she does enjoy checking her numbers to see if anything has come up.
I grew up with my mom asking me if I dreamt of any numbers. I wrote about it briefly here: http://lanivcox.blogspot.com/2009/11/mug-full-of-dreams.html
It’s a never-know-until-you-try culture 🙂
My mom would also interpret the dreams, esp. the animals. She had a chart she referred to that different numbers corresponding to the different animals. It made no sense to me but I sure did try to make sense of it all!
And yes, my mom would get frustrated if she didn’t reverse the numbers or vice versa. Sigh. Even after I left home I’d call her to tell her when I dreamt of numbers.
For the record I haven’t dreamt of any numbers lately 😛
Hi Lani, if you do dream of numbers can you share them 🙂
Paul, Thais really do go overboard on lottery numbers, way too much. I have seen Wilai knelt on our bed praying to Buddha with her ‘dream’ numbers tucked under the pillow. Unfortunately the last two draws her numbers have come in, well some of the many she picks. I say unfortunately because the 12,ooo baht total she has picked up will only encourage her to dream more.
Mind you, I’ve always said ‘Sleep is cheap.”
Personally I’d rather earn money than win it. I think when people win big on the lottery it eventually makes them miserable because they didn’t really work for the money – there is no sense of achievement. I could be wrong about this though. I know that in Ireland (and from what I’ve seen in England too) there are a lot of people who are waiting for relatives to die so that they can get their hands on some cash. I definitely thing a lottery obsessions is better than this.