Thailand’s Loy Krathong Festival

As the rainy season ends and the farmers land is primed ready for next years harvest the Thai nation prepares to embrace their annual Loy Krathong Festival, the Festival Of Lights. The night of the 12th lunar calendar full moon falling in November is the chance for Thai people to pay tribute to the Goddess of Water and ask forgiveness for polluting the waterways. 

Opinions on the origins of the Loy Krathong Festival vary with one of the most documented theories dating back some 700 years to the Sukhothai period. Each year at the end of the rice planting season on the night of the 12th lunar full moon, the King of Sukhothai held a water festival at which many people would float lit candles and lanterns on the waters.

One year the beautiful and artistically talented Nang Noppamas made a krathong (vessel made of banana leaves) adorned with flowers and candles which she lit and released from the waters edge during a floating lantern contest. The King was so impressed with its beauty and significance he decreed that each year on the night of the water festival, lighted krathongs should be floated on the rivers and canals of the Kingdom.

For many Thais Loy Krathong is the favourite of all the countries many festivals and it has become a popular attraction for foreign visitors too heralding November as the start of the peak tourist season. The 2008 festival takes place on the night of the full moon on November 12th.

Early morning on festival day all around Thailand townsfolk and  villagers go to their temples and make merit to the monks  with an offering of food and to listen to monks chanting sermons.

Volunteers will go to the polluted waterways and clear the  debris in readiness for the evenings floating of krathongs.  Afternoon will see families and friends making krathongs or alterations to their previous day’s creation.

A traditional krathong can be made using the soft inner core of a  banana  tree as a base to which banana leaves are pinned with  toothpicks forming a lotus flower shaped boat. The krathong is  then adorned with  flowers, three incense sticks, candles and  small coins.

Early evening the local communities set off to the rivers, ponds and canals, carrying their krathongs to enjoy a night of celebration, music and spectacle. Many houses, temples and bridges will be decorated by strings of bright coloured lights as Thailand celebrates with a full moon carnival. The nights events includes music, dancing, krathong contests and Nang Noppamas Beauty Pageants. The night skies are lit up with fireworks and floating lanterns which form a picturesque background for the flickering flames of the krathongs floating over the waters.

The pinnacle of the festival evening is the floating of krathongs at the waters edge. The incense sticks and candles are first lit and after making a wish for the coming 12 months, the krathong is released into the water. It is believed that the offering of the krathong to the water will wash away the sins and bad luck of the previous year and bring good luck in the future. 

I hope you have a very enjoyable Loy Krathong 2008 and if you are travelling have a safe journey.

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Credits

Photographs by kind permission of    TAT  Loy Krathong

© 2008 – 2011, Martyn. All rights reserved.

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