Loy Krathong festival (also spelt loi krathong) is coming up this weekend this is probably one of the most elegant festivals in Thailand. It is held on 12th full moon of the lunar calendar, I can’t remember if this has ever fallen out side of November I guess it could do, this year it will be celebrated on the 24th November in Phuket.
Loy Krathong festival is probably one of my favorite festivals in Thailand mainly because I don’t have to kneel for hours on end and of course the graceful beauty of the celebration. Loy Krathong literally is the festival of lights, loy means to float and krathong is a small round float made from a section of banana tree trunk and decorated with fresh flowers and leaves to represent a sort of lotus leaf with incense and a candle in the middle with a freshly plucked hair from you head and a nail clicking from a finger, optionally there will be a small amount of money normally 9 Baht place in the base just for extra good luck. You’ll witness this at just about every piece of water including large ponds, lakes and rivers, people will go with their families in the evening and under the light of the full moon light the candles and incense and release their floats, making a quiet prayer as they do so. This beautiful sight will be repeated across the whole country and creates a special kind of calm almost meditative state in the onlookers.
That is until of course your Krathong is far enough away from you and then the hoards of small children destroy the master piece whilst searching for the small amount of money that you’ve placed in there, hey this is Thailand after all and waste not want not comes to mind.
The purpose of the festival is to give thanks to the water spirits and goddess of the river and ask their forgiveness for dirtying the waters. It also marks a close of the wet season. Releasing the floats is also symbolic of releasing grudges, sins and bad thoughts, so that one can start anew in the dry season.
