All receive a comprehensive education and by coming into contact with neighbouring villages' children and visiting the provincial capital on - school trips they enjoy a broadening of social experience. Having assumed ever-increasing workloads and responsibilities, youths of 15 and 16 are already regarded as fully mature adult labourers. The village girl's entrance into adolescence is a gentle one. Courtship is confined initially to communal work groups during planting and harvesting and at monastery-centred festivals and activities. Emotional relationships mature slowly and customarily involve chaperoned meetings at the girl's house.
Most young people select their own marriage.
Rarely is parental disapproval voiced since marriages often take place between families within the same village, further strengthening and widening communal ties. A marriage is sometimes presented as a fait accompli by children who work in towns or cities and are thus beyond parental control. Early in the morning, in accordance with traditional Thai belief that married life should begin with merit-making, the bride and groom feed village monks and present them with small gifts. In return, the monks bless the couple and the house or room where they will live. The village marriage ceremony bestows no official validity on their union but is merely a public proclama tion that the two people will live together as man and wife.