The Magic of Loy Krathong

There are quite a few holidays here in Thailand, but most of them are holidays that we do not participate in.  Mostly, because they are Buddhist holidays and I would feel like I am imposing on a private event.  But there are two holidays that we love to participate in, Loy Krathong and Songkran.

Loy Krathong was last weekend.  It always takes place on the full moon in November. The purpose of this holiday is to make a krathong (float), light a candle for the gods and float all of your bad luck and worries away.  I love this holiday...I think it goes back to when we were fleeing from the floods our first year in Bangkok.  I remember watching  a travel show on Loy Krathong before we moved to Bangkok and absolutely fell in love with the beauty of this holiday.  Then, our first year while we were staying away from Bangkok during the floods, we had the opportunity to let lanterns go on the beach. When I look back on our time in Thailand, I know that moment on the beach with Ben and the boys and letting all of our worries and anxiety about our new lifestyle float away will have left the biggest impact on me.  I was standing on a beach in Thailand, which I never imagined would be possible in my lifetime, and experiencing pure peace.

Letting lanterns go on the beach in Rayong, 2011

So, the full moon was approaching this month and we decided to get ready for Loy Krathong by making our own "green" krathong.  Many of the Krathongs that are made are beautiful but a lot of the bases are made of styrofoam and material that is terrible for the rivers, ponds and fish.  So, we went to a friends house and collected flowers and leaves and used rice cake and salt dough bases.  This was such a great project and we will do this again for sure next year.  I love how the boy's krathongs turned out.  They were beautiful and so special for the boys to release.

We headed out to our neighborhood for the Loy Krathong celebrations.  We found a nice little spot on the quiet side of the lake to release the krathongs. The boys were so excited that they actually stayed afloat.  We were hoping the fish got a nice little dinner from our "green" krathongs.  We finished the night watching a great fireworks show and and will hopefully have a year a wonderful luck.

Releasing the krathong in the water

 Krathongs being sold at the celebration. 

The lake in our neighborhood

Now, the day following Loy Krathong is not so beautiful.  The rivers and ponds were completely covered in krathongs.  I read a local newspaper article that said they were removing over 800,000 krathongs that were needing to be cleaned up.  A few houses even caught fire after the floating lanterns caught on fire and landed on the homes.  It's sad that such a beautiful holiday and can turn into such a mess.  With that said, it is still my favorite Thai holiday and I have a great feeling about this upcoming year!