6 November - Today was my first time to experience Thailand's Loy Krathong Festival. This is what they also call Festival of Light. The rivers, canals, lakes or different sources of water become lighted with seemingly floating candles. At a closer look, one would realize these candles are on a solid and beautifully decorated krathong. A krathong is a buoyant, decorated basket made to float in the water.
To witness the event, we walked towards the park near where we live. First we found sellers of krathongs on the street.
This is what a krathong looks like up close.
Traditionally, Krathongs were made of banana leaves with flowers. My Thai friends said that Krathong made from bread was better as it provides food for the fishes. I found these too.
What the people do is to put their krathongs in the water. They would then ask the water spirits to sail away their troubles in the krathongs. The flowers and the incense serve as offerings and some even put coins in them.
We had to try this ourselves. One krathong was about 70Baht. We then asked a few people around to have our candle lighted. Thi was done a few times as the wind was quite strong that night.
and we're ready to have it sail away.
Other people were then gradually arriving to float theirs. Saw this man praying for good luck before putting it into the water.
It is also the time to pay respect to the Goddess of Water. It was originally believed as an event to apologize to her for using and sometimes polluting the waters.
This Festival coincides with a Lanna festival which Thais call as Yi Peng. Floating lanterns are flown into the air. I saw a family getting ready to have their lantern released.
Because these may cause hazards to passing aircrafts or may cause fire on houses, the government has restricted its use. Therefore, we did not saw a lot of these flying lanterns.
It was indeed a night filled with lights and enchantment as the waters and the skies were somehow filled with flickering lights.
