Loy Krathong Festival Thursday 10 November 2011

Loy Krathong Festival in Chiang Saen was wonderful this year. We took 5 guests into the town in the evening to join in the celebrations. The festival is about giving thanks for having water, the source of life (although in many parts of Thailand this year there was too much water, in fact in Bangkok there were no Loy Krathong celebrations).

 This is wonderful spectacle and a traditional Thai festival dating from the Sukhothai kingdom, over 600 years ago. In fact there were very few foreigners around. The date coincides with the last full moon of the traditional Thai lunar calendar, where the last month of the year is November.

We watched the parade of about 30 floats come down the main street, from all the villages in the Chiang Saen area. The floats and village beauty queens are judged by a panel of VIPs and the winners get prizes. The floats are works of art that the people spend many weeks preparing for and are covered with fresh flowers. Also in the parade are fire breathers, drum dancers and sword dancers.

 We all then headed down to the Mekong river to float our krathongs down the river and make our wishes. We had made our krathongs at the hotel earlier in the day, using only organic items; a slice of a banana tree, folded leaves, fresh flowers, candles and incence.