#  >  > Thailand Festivals, Beaches, Scuba Diving and Temples, Tell us Your Tales >  >  > Thailands Festivals and Celebrations >  >  Thailands Valentines Day

## dirtydog

A group of young students choose roses at a market in Bangkok on Tuesday in preparation for the Valentine's Day scheduled on Wednesday.

Photo by Pamuk Abdullakasim
The nation

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## dirtydog

*Valentine's Day 'sinful' for Muslims: Aceh Islamic leader**


*
Jakarta - Celebrating Valentine's Day is sinful and forbidden for Muslims, an Indonesian Islamic leader warned Tuesday.
 "This celebration comes from another religion and has no legal basis in the Islamic Sharia law," said Muslim Ibrahim, who is chairman of the highest authority on Islamic affairs in Aceh province.
 "Therefore, taking part in celebrating the day of love is haram (forbidden) for Muslims," Ibrahim told the state Antara news agency.
 St Valentine's Day is named after a Christian martyr and over the years has become the day on which lovers traditionally express their feelings for each other.
 Ibrahim said Valentine's Day went against Islamic teachings and values and was used to overly express love to someone of the opposite sex.
 "I hope that the young generation can be proud of our regional culture, which abounds with Islamic values, and can maintain their identity," Ibrahim said.
 "I also call on parents to provide guidance to their young so that they do not take part in celebrating that day."
 He said anyone still wishing to mark Valentine's Day on Wednesday in Aceh should do so in private.
 Aceh is gradually implementing Islamic Sharia law under a broad autonomy package granted by the central government in 2001 to pacify demands for independence in the staunchly Muslim region.
 It is the only province in Indonesia, the world's largest mainly Muslim nation, to be allowed to do so.

Agence France Presse

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## Fingers_in_pies

Muslims are weird

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## Marmite the Dog

> Aceh is gradually implementing Islamic Sharia law


Another God forsaken place to avoid.

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## dirtydog

A market gardener carries a large bunch of roses which will be snapped up by the romantically-minded today, Valentine's Day. Growers in Tak, a major supplier, are not happy with price controls being imposed.

 SUPAMART KASEM


*A rose at any other price does not smell as sweet to growers*


Tak _ Rose growers in Tak's Phop Phra district complain the Internal Trade Department's price controls on roses have dashed their once-a-year chance of turning a big profit _ Valentine's Day sales. The domestic supply of roses, particularly red ones, is outstripped by the huge Valentine's Day demand, and retail prices soar. 
Phop Phra district is the largest producer of cut roses in the North, with planting over an area of more than 4,600 rai. 
About 1.2 million cut flowers are produced daily. Of these, about 300,000 are top-grade roses. 
The department has warned traders they will face tough legal action if they are found selling roses at inflated prices today. Director-general Siripol Yodmuangcharoen said rose traders had been told to attach clear price tags. 
Top-grade roses should be sold at six to seven baht each, while average quality roses with shorter stems should be retailed at three to four baht apiece. 
The department also instructed its provincial offices to survey the prices of roses sold at each local garden. The information will be used as a yardstick by which the prices of roses sold in Bangkok will be judged, to protect consumers from unscrupulous traders. 
Mr Siripol said large-scale traders who collude to fix wholesale prices of the roses were liable to a maximum three-year jail term and a six million baht fine. 
Small traders selling overpriced roses face up to seven years in jail and/or a fine of up to 140,000 baht, if caught. 
Malai Toliang, head of a group of rose growers in Phop Phra district, said the department contacted him and asked how much growers charge for their roses. The department then proceeded to put curbs on rose prices, particularly in Bangkok. 
''Rose growers are upset with the rose price controls. Sales are down. Retailers dare not make bulk orders out of fear they won't be able to set high prices,'' Mr Malai said. Wikran Saengmanee, the district's agricultural promotion officer, said some growers might be forced out of business because of the price curbs. 

Bangkok Post

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## dirtydog

A newly-wed couple swings back and forth from a rope as they prepare to a bouquet to guests at their wedding earlier today in Prachin Buri. The couple was among seven others who incorporated rock-climbing in their wedding celebration on Valentine's Day today.

Photo by Wason Wanichakorn
The Nation

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## dirtydog

*An elephantine wedding
*Twenty-eight couples from Thailand and overseas sign their marriage certificates while seated on elephants at a mass wedding ceremony to mark Valentine's Day yesterday in Surin's Tha Tum district. The celebration claims to be the first of its kind in the northeastern province. 

PICHIT SAISANGCHAN 
Bangokok Post

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## dirtydog

*VALENTINE'S

Love is in the air, at least for some, on day of romance* 

*POST REPORTERS* 

There was love, ambition and anger in the air on Valentine's Day yesterday. A couple in their eighties formally tied the knot, a student tried to rob a dentist to raise the money to take his sweetheart out, and a high-profile pathologist received a pestle in protest against her work. 
With the aid of a cane, Grandpa Mak Charoensuk, 88, walked hand in hand with Grandma Ui, 86, to register their marriage at the Muang district office in Nakhon Ratchasima yesterday. 
Grandpa kissed his bride, whose wide toothless smile lit up her face. They were among 34 couples joining a mass wedding. 
In Suphan Buri's U Thong district, Sorn Poh-ngam, 68, and Nuan Unpee, 66, kicked a kerosene can to show that they are physically fit. In the Thai saying, people able to kick the kerosene can ''hard and loud'' are fit enough to have sex. 
All 60 couples who converged there received free health check-ups. 
In Trang, 40 couples were married 12m under the sea. 
In Prachin Buri, seven pairs glided 60m down the Weluwan waterfall cliff to register their marriages. 
But Bang Rak, Bangkok's ''district of love'', remained the favourite place with 665 couples choosing to formally tie the knot there. 
In Nonthaburi's Muang district, an engineering student tried to rob a dentist in the morning in order to take his sweetheart out last night. But police chased and arrested Supatchai Sudglao, 26, after spotting him hitting Kamol Tangkij-ngamwong, 37, on the back of his head with a wooden stick. Supatchai was charged with attempted robbery. 
To patch up differences after the dismissal of Pol Gen Kowit Wattana as national police chief on Feb 5, Supreme Commander Gen Boonsang Niampradit hosted a reunion of Class 6 of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School. 
All Council for National Security members and their spouses went to the party at the residence of CNS leader and army chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin last night. But for pathologist Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan, a pestle wrapped in a red ribbon and a lawsuit against her did not signify love from Noppadol Thammawattana. The head of the Central Institute of Forensic Science said after the second autopsy of his elder brother, Hangthong, that murder was the cause of death eight years ago. Mr Noppadol was charged with conspiring in the murder, before a third autopsy confirmed suicide was the cause 

Bangkok Post

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