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Home  >  Chiang Mai • Thailand  >  The Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai
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The Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai

Allison Sherman Posted onNovember 9, 2017 Comments are off 2420 Views

It’s almost time for Zoe and I to say goodbye to Thailand, but we are so glad we were able to watch – and participate in – this very well-known festival in Chiang Mai. Before I get into the fun part, here’s a few details I learned about from this very informative online article.

Loy Krathong Festival in Chiang Mai

Loy Krathong is a festival celebrated throughout Thailand with the festivities in Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya being particularly well known. Thais use the festival to thank the goddess of water for providing life to the fields and forests and asks for forgiveness for polluting ways of the human. Loosely translated, Loy Krathong means, “to float a basket”. How this looks in-person is that you literally make or buy a basket made of natural materials, light a candle and incense and send it off down the river! It’s kind of ironic that we are asking for forgiveness for our polluting ways… while polluting. But the materials were MOSTLY natural so perhaps forgiveness will be forthcoming.

“Loy” means to float and a “Krathong” is a small handmade boat traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk. Modern-day versions often use banana stalks or bread which will disintegrate after a few days and can be eaten by fish. Styrofoam bases were once used but they were banned for the first time in 2017. Three cheers for no styrofoam in the river!

Can you see the word “Google”? This was their logo for the day when you use Google search page from a Thai server. That’s a krathong (basket of flowers) as the second “O” So cute!

Buddhist devotees often craft krathong with banana leaves and adorn them with flowers, candles, and incense sticks. On the night of the full moon, they light the candles and joss-sticks, and launch their krathong on a river, canal or a pond, making a wish as they do so and paying respects to the water goddess that guard the river.  It is believed that the krathongs take away sins and bad luck and carry the wishes that have been made for the new year to start.  Sometimes Thai people will cut their hair or fingernails and send it along with the krathong as way of sending off the bad and starting new.

Zoe and I participated on an excursion where they taught us how to make the baskets (all the while a continuous stream of Thai snacks emanated from the hosts- this is my kind of excursion!). This was a great class in Homeschool Art and it was not taught by me! In fact, my guide at the workshop suggested a few easier ways for me to make my basket. I think she sensed early-on that the gift of art is not strong in this one.

Zoe is working hard. She made TWO of them. And of course, she was the only kid. She’s used to that. All of the green material you see is banana leaf.

 

My basket was made of all natural materials except these little styrofoam balls and the metal pins I used to secure everything to the banana stalk.

 

We even made the candles. There’s some long legend about those wicks, involving a crow. You twist them using your leg. It got complicated.

 

My finished product!

 

Top view of my krathong. The yellow flower is symbolic of King Rama 9, who was just laid to rest a few weeks ago.

 

A much more talented individual did this one. Can you see it’s a bird?

 

Later that day we went down to the river to send them off. Thai people seemed to want a lot of selfies with theirs, prior to sending it off. Pretty sure Facebook in Thailand was flooded with krathong images!

 

Dan joined us for this part. It was hard to get the candle to stay lit because there was a breeze but they got it to light and sent it off! More selfies.

 

We sat there and watched a bunch of them float by. It was like a parade! Dan was like “Uh, can we go now???” #notaparadefan

But wait, what about the lanterns? Ah yes, that’s what people call the festival so surely they are here somewhere. In my opinion, the little floating baskets got the short end of the stick by not getting a mention, but maybe this blog will change that. Be the change you want to see in the world!

Yee Peng Festival in Chiang Mai

In Chiang Mai, Loy Krathong coincides with the Lanna (Northern Thai) festival of Yee Peng, or full moon day of the second month of Lanna traditional calendar. Did you get that? Two festivals in one! In this festival, lighted Khom Loi (Lanna style sky lanterns) are released into the air through the course of the night. The act of releasing the lantern symbolizes letting go of all ills and misfortunes in the previous year, and Buddhists also believe that if you make a wish when you set off the lantern, it will come true (but only if you do good deeds the following year). It is during Yee Peng that you see locals’ homes and public places decked out in colourful hanging lanterns and flag decorations.

After our basket-making workshop, Zoe and I took to the streets to find lanterns. This was not a hard, nor expensive task. They were about $1.50 each and we were happy to get them in our packing cube colors. Good thing Haley is on her retreat in Southern Thailand because they did not have blue for her.

We found them! Now we just have to haul them around til we get to the release spot. Sounds like a job for a tuk tuk.

After sending off our floating baskets, we went to the spot where people were releasing lanterns. And by “releasing lanterns” I mean that they were standing around in a big crowd, lighting things on fire and hoping that they drift upward, away from the crowd. This was one of those “they would never allow this in ‘Merica” moments. I swear Zoe’s going to go back to the USA and break all kinds of safety regs because of what she thinks is normal! #whatsaseatbelt

Every once in awhile a lantern would go rogue and float down, fully on fire, into the crowd. Natural human behavior kept everyone safe. That and me, on full alert for any kind of flame drifting in our direction.

Lighting these things up and sending them off was not so simple! First you have to get the thing light with your sucky 7-11 lighter. Then you have to put it on the ground and hold down the bottom to let the warm air build up inside the lantern. Then, when you think it’s warm enough, you let go and it sloooowwwly drifts upward. You make a wish and then it’s gone! By our third one we were pretty good at it.

Dan was the official lighter. Zoe was the holder. It’s not a sorting hat, Zoe. This is Dan’s. His packing cubes are orange, of course.

 

This is Zoe’s. You can also see the crowd, and the propensities for selfies. Which means people are all very distracted. #safetysecond

 

This is mine! I made a wish! But I have to do good deeds this year in order for the wish to come true. Ruh Roh. #wasteoflantern

 

More pics of the crowd. It was crazy, I tell you!

After sending our lanterns away we watched the crowd for awhile and loved seeing all of the lanterns float off into the night. It was so pretty and a LOT of fun. This was one of the first times I felt like we were actually participating in – and understanding – Thai culture. I’ll explain more in a future blog, but Thailand was a tough nut to crack, so to end on this note was bittersweet.

This was a view from another bridge up the river from where we released the lantern. All the little lights in the sky are lanterns. Look closely and you’ll see little lights on the river edges. Those are the floating baskets with candles in them. This is the Ping River, which runs through Chiang Mai.

 

On our drive home we saw lanterns on the road that had gone astray. This one was caught up in a power or telephone line. Although, it looked more like a large condom.

The whole experience was really interesting and educational. If nothing else, Zoe now understands that heat rises. We like to keep it basic here in Sherman World Academy. Next, I will need to go over fire safety. Or not.

Previous Article So Wat Dii Kaaaaa (aka Thai language)
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