Loi Krathong begins with Yi Peng, the Lantern Festival. Beautiful lanterns like these, and many other types, can be seen all over town. This picture was taken at the Tha Pae Gate, a huge plaza near our hotel. It was truely a magical spot - every evening for a week, the gate was full of people strolling beneath the lights, children spinning and twirling & everyone taking pictures - or posing! And posing in the cutest manner possible!
Loi Krathong takes place during the full moon in November, and in Chiang Mai, it's a big deal. There were 3 amazing evening parades, impressive floats built on rafts in the river (like the one above in the early stages of preparation), a beauty contest, live entertainment, a big street fair, fire crackers & fireworks popping & exploding all day & night, and lovely fire lanterns floating up into the sky all evening long!
The main event is when everyone goes to the Ping River to float a little raft (a Krathong) made on a slice of banana tree - see the stack of little rounds on the bench behind the table? There are 3 girls behind this table making beautiful rafts to sell.
Noise, noise NOISE! Fire crackers going off night & day! Sada said these spent softball sized ceramic balls were beautiful flower fountains. We saw all kinds of fireworks for sale in the markets - in all sizes.
In a previous year, someone collected the leftovers & started a little wall - good idea!
The rafts are intricately decorated with natural (or edible) materials and always have sticks of incense and a candle, sometimes money is added.
Floating the Krathong is meant to honor the ancestors, send offerings and apologies to the river Gods, and to float away bad luck and sorrow.
You can see how intricate, different and beautiful they can be!
There were beautiful lanterns displays all over town.
This is just a small part of the spectacle at the 'Three Kings' monument.
And... there are the Three Kings - behind the cute girls posing for a picture.
More Krathongs - a very pretty design, with orchids.
These were awesome, made with - can you guess? Yup, ice cream cones!
I bought my krathong from a couple of young girls who only had a few left - it was a bit scruffy looking, but I didn't mind! We lit the candle & incense, made our way down the steps to the river's edge, and with Sada holding on to me, sent the little raft off into the river! Lots of other rafts were floating by and mine joined the procession. A lovely moment.
The weird & funny-ish thing is that down stream, there are often people/kids looting the krathons for any cash, like in the picture above. But... you send off your raft with blessings, wishes, beautiful flowers and money... and it is received by 'someone' on the other end, right? Does it really matter that that 'someone' is a kid up to his knees in the river checking out the little rafts! As Sada said - you give your offering to the Buddha, and the Buddha passes it along to the children.
No one seemed to mind - the fish can't use the cash, can they?
And, the beauty contest - they were all just lovely!
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