Loy Krathong

This weekend on the full moon of 24 and 25 November the annual Thai festival of Loy Krathong was held. The festival is held 12Th month in the traditional lunar calendar.

Loy Krathong finds its origin in the Hindu festival to thank the deity of the Ganges. Nowadays the festival has been assimilated with the many Buddhist celebrations in Thailand. Loy Krathong is a festival to thank the goddess of the water for using the water for a whole year. All the sins and bad things will also be washed away on this festival.

Loy in Thai means "to float" and Krathong is a kind of self made little raft. The Krathong is made from banana leaves, or nowadays from foam) and holds a candle, three incense sticks and flowers or other decorations. For realising their Krathongs Thai people will go to the nearby river and if possible to a temple with access to the river. The candles and incense sticks will be lit and a wish will be made. A piece of your hair, symbolising the bad deeds and feelings, will be attached to the Krathong. After this ritual the Krathong is ready to go and float on.

This was a description of the more traditional festival, nowadays the releasing of the Krathong is still very important but a lot of different customs have been added to the festival.

Most Thai people get a holiday and anyway this year the festival took please in the weekend, so it is a festival for the whole family and a lot of food and especially drinks will be consumed.

In a lot of cities parades will be held. On the first day the parade will be more like a miss contest. The beauties of the city will be waving from their parade car. On the next day the government offices will decorate the parade cars with big Krathongs.

A more modern form of Kratong has also been introduced and is called khom fai. These are lantern or hot air balloons which are released to wash away the bad things and also a wish is granted when you release the lantern. These lantern are a lot of fun to do especially with a bunch of people it really creates a nice atmosphere. But be careful because the can be a bit dangerous if released when there is not enough hot air. The lantern will go down and can cause some damage. I witnessed it this year a lantern that came down on someone's balcony and burned all the plants.

Loy Krathong is sometimes referred as the festival of fire. The thing you will notice even more than the Krathongs and lanterns is the fireworks! I have never seen so much fireworks and so many different kinds. The disco firework, dinosaur eggs, garlic crackers, rockets in all sizes. I could get a bit of an idea how soldiers would have to live under constant threat of bombardment. Sleeping is a bit of a problem when all you hear is constant explosions and scared barking dogs. In Thailand there is no restriction on fireworks and no legal age to buy it. On the Thai TV news a lot accidents were shown. Especially children who had no experience lost a hand or some fingers.

So I apart from the sleepless nights and the constant state of vigilance I really enjoyed Loy Krathong for its tradition and fairy tale atmosphere.