Celebrating Loi Krathong!

Loi Krathong (also written as Loy Krathong) is a festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand and certain parts of Laos and Burma. The name could be translated as "Floating Crown" or "Floating Decoration", and comes from the tradition of making buoyant decorations (known as Krathongs) which are then floated out on a river. Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai Lunar Calendar. For us westerners, this falls in November. So this past Sunday we all went to Nai Harn beach to celebrate Loi Krathong!

 (farangs with their krathongs)

A krathong is usually decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, incense sticks, and a candle. A small coin is sometimes included as an offering to the river spirits. As we entered Nai Harn, the Thais lined the streets crafting all kinds of beautiful krathongs by hand. It was really amazing to see! They make it look so simple but you can tell by the photos they are anything but..

Some krathongs are even made out of ice-cream cones or bread! As long as it's bio-degradable, it's fair game.

After sunset everyone lights the incense and candles and launches their krathongs out onto a river, canal or a pond (in our case Nai Harn Pond), making a wish as they do so. The festival is supposed to originate from an ancient ritual paying respect to the water spirits. It was beautiful seeing all the lit krathongs drifting into the pond. Thailand has such a rich and beautiful culture, it was so cool getting to participate in it!

 

Another really cool tradition of Loi Krathong is the lighting of paper lanterns that you then release into the sky. This was my favorite part. While half the crowds were by the pond releasing their krathongs into the water, there was a stream of people coming and going from the beach releasing their lanterns into the night sky. The result was a constant stream of lanterns rising over the ocean. It was amazing!

The whole ride home on the motorbike you could see streams of lanterns floating across the sky from all over the island. It was magical! Definitely something not soon forgotten.