Four elephants disguised as Santa Claus with giant masks due to the Covid-19 epidemic on Wednesday in a school in Thailand as part of a parade held every year on the occasion of Christmas.
Children of the "Geras Wetaia" school in Ayutthaya, an hour from Bangkok, sang Christmas songs and queued for pictures alongside the elephants.
"Sri Mongkun" (14 years old), "Sri Raya" (6 years old), "Peter" (15 years old), and "King Kawi" (18 years old) carried by his hose a basket containing medical masks distributed to students and parents outside the school.
Brett Baxter, an English and science teacher, aims to revive the Christmas atmosphere with a Thai flavor.
"It´s really cool for kids to have two cultures combined," he says, "on the one hand, Christmas and Santa Claus, which brings joy, and on the other, the Thai culture, based on elephants."
Ayutthaya, the former capital of the Kingdom of Siam, is the Christian center of Thailand. The European Catholic missionaries built a church on the banks of the Chao Praia River three centuries ago.
Every year for the past 17 years, Ayutthaya´s children have received a visit from these unique Santa Claus characters, according to Ayutthaya´s Elephant Mansion Manager Etiepan Paulamay.
"We took advantage of the opportunity this year to enhance public awareness of the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic," he says.
However, these marches are not unanimous. Veterinarian Jan Smith-Burbatch, a member of the World Association for the Protection of Animals, considers that presenting elephants in this way in a children´s school "gives the children a false impression about animals facing extinction ... and increases pressure on elephants."
