My Life in Thailand: Lanterns in the Sky

Recently we celebrated Loy Krathong Festival!

Loy Krathong Day is one of the most popular festivals of Thailandcelebrated annually on the Full-Moon Day of the Twelfth Lunar Month. It takes place at a time when the weather is fine as the rainy season is over and there is a high water level all over the country.

"Loy" means "to float" and a"Krathong" is a lotus-shaped vessel made of banana leaves. The Krathong usually contains a candle, three joss-sticks, some flowers and coins.

In fact, the festival is of Brahmin origin in which people offer thanks to the Goddess of the water. Thus, by moonlight, people light the candles and joss-sticks, Loy Krathong Day

make a wish and launch their Krathongs on canals, rivers or even small ponds. It is believed that the Krathongs carry away sins and bad luck, and the wishes that have been made for the new year due to start. Indeed, it is the time to be joyful and happy as the sufferings are floated away.The festival starts in the evening when there is a full moon in the sky. People of all walks of life carry their Krathongs to the nearby rivers. After lighting candles and joss-sticks and making a wish, they gently place the Krathongs on the water and let them drift away till they go out of sight.

We decided to get a head start on the festival by lighting off a lantern a couple days in advance. It was huge! So we walked down our street to a field, away from power lines, and got ready to send off our lantern.

Bethany got down to help fan the flame. It was alittle difficult seeming as how it was windy out there! But we got her started....

However, once lit we have to wait and wait for the lantern to fill up with warm air while keeping her steady so that she doesn't catch on fire as we wait (with the wind it was alittle hard).

Still waiting.....

and waiting....

The inside of a lantern looking up

All was going well until the wind came through and Brookie trying to stabilize it accidently put a rip in it....it was a no go. But that left us with a lantern aflame with no possible way of floating off....we ripped the paper part and walked over to the cement where we could put out the fire.

Then on the actually night we joined the other hundreds of people in down town Chiang Mai to celebrate and light off lanterns. It was so amazing. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the night sky was with hundreds and hundreds of glowing lanterns!!!! My pictures don't do justice! I wish you all could have seen it yourselves.

Traffic was crazy! We dropped off the car and then took a "tuk tuk" (open cart thing on three wheels and a motor) It was freezing but we were somewhat warm sitting crammed in there.

We walked for a bit till we got down by the river. There is a main bridge in town which is just taken over by pedestrians with fireworks and lanterns! It was pretty crazy out there. You constantly had to be watching your back and head! Some lanterns wouldn't float up fast enough but were still getting carried by the wind....some close calls for some people with their hair catching fire! All in all a great night......