Year 2014: Buddhist era 2557-2558

There was an interesting debate among colleagues that was triggered by the simple fact that I shared the official government calendar for 2014.  The Calendar has, as it has had in the previous year, and possibly many years prior to that,  the sub title -  Buddhist Era 2557-2558. This triggered a discussion on whether it was appropriate to have that on the calendar or not.  The argument against seemed to be based on it being seen as an imposition by the State of Buddhism, into areas that are perceived as secular and non-religious. [Though of course, as was pointed out,  the Gregorian Calendar is not really secular at all, based on the fact that it counts the years from the birth of Christ!]

What was interesting was that we were having this debate at all.  Obviously, the current context has made us all ultra sensitive to certain issues, and the whole question of a state religion led some of us to be uncomfortable, others to be resentful (not overtly manifest in this conversation)  and yet others to be defensive.  I recalled the years when we changed our weekends to Poya and pre-Poya, and had the weekdays numbered (Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 etc) – where opposition was on the grounds of impracticality and being out of sync with world practice rather than on religious grounds.  But that was when other religions/ethnicities did not feel marginalized.. before the war, before the proselytisation of the charismatic churches, before the halal debate, before BBS.   Sigh.