BANGKOK (Reuters) – Buddhist monks in Thailand are too tired to receive early morning alms because they are staying up late to watch the World Cup, a Thai newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The Nation quoted a woman in the northern city of Chiang Mai who said her birthday celebrations were ruined because monks at a city temple were not awake to receive her morning offering, a mandatory religious ritual in the predominately Buddhist country.
In neighboring Cambodia, some 40,000 monks have been warned they could be defrocked if they became too excited while watching the games.
“If they make noise or cheer as they watch, they will lose their monkhood,” Phnom Penh patriarch Non Nget told Reuters this month.
[What could be so distracting to risk losing your monk hood? But, I’d pro’lly be pissed too if my mandatory monring ritual offering was ruined (ruined!!!)—especially on my birthday.]