Lantern Festival in Northern Thailand

Trip Start Nov 08, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

November is the month when Thailand celebrates Loy Khratong, loosely translated as the Festival of Lights.  Actually loy means "float," and a khratong is a banana leaf boat, but they often put candles in them, hence the light part.  As you may remember from my entry last year (#106), the holiday is about giving thanks to the river goddess for the abundance she provides.  People craft little floating shrines out of banana leaves and decorate them with flowers, incense, and candles and then offer them to the river.  Last year Dane and I participated in this activity on the Chao Praya River in Bangkok.  I was really excited about it because I thought it sounded like such a charming tradition.   I envisioned the river studded with twinkling candlelight.  Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a sight to see.  The river is too massive and fast-moving to enjoy any spectacle.  The khratongs are swept away or swallowed up as soon as they are set in the water.

Then, after the holiday, one of my Thai students returned and shared his photos of the festival in Northern Thailand.  At this point, I learned that they celebrate it quite differently.  They even have a different name for it - Yi Peng, which literally means "the full-moon night of the twelfth lunar month."  That's when the holiday is held.  Both the North and the South celebrate it at the same time, during the full moon in November, but they do so in very different ways.  Instead of crafting khratongs for the river, the people in the North make lanterns and release them into the sky.  The traditional belief is that, as the lanterns float away, they will carry with them the troubles of the people. 

The photos of my student were mesmerizing - hundreds of glowing lanterns drifting simultaneously into the night sky.  I was captivated, and instantly vowed that I would spend my next Loy Khratong/Yi Peng in Northern Thailand. 

And so now here we were, a year already flown by, and Dane and I were in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand ready to see some lanterns.
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