Loy Krathong festival in Thailand
On Wednesday, November 25, the famous Loy Krathong festival will take place again in Thailand. A festival that honors the goddess Mae Khongkha, but also asks for forgiveness if water has been wasted or polluted.
For this, boats, Krathongs made of banana leaves and decorated with candles, smoke sticks, flowers and money, are let sail over the water (Loy = float, sail). The boats sometimes contain wish notes. The festival probably stems from Hinduism from India and was introduced to Thailand around the year 1400.
As soon as the evening falls, people often gather in beautiful costumes near rivers, lakes and the sea. As soon as the Krathong floats away, the old sins and evils disappear with it and one hopes for a happy future. Couples in love hope for eternal love and follow the boat as long as possible. A Thai proverb says: 'The longer one can see the flickering candlelight, the happier the coming year will be!'. Wish balloons, a kind of large lantern with fire at the bottom, are also released. A fantastic sight all those floating lights in the sky.
So much for the feast as it has always been celebrated. This year the party in Pattaya could be different. The party now falls on Wednesday. This means that chairs, tables and the like are not allowed on a number of beaches. In other years, people were enjoying a snack and a drink on and at the beach, Krathongs were launched and wish balloons were released. Sitting on a towel on the beach now doesn't seem like a great idea to me.
The aviation authorities have also requested not to release wish balloons in connection with the safety of air traffic. Last year, overzealous law enforcement officials were already busy taking away or destroying wishing balloons. Whether there will still be vendors of wish balloons present this year remains to be seen.
In short, this year we have to wait and see how things will go, but it won't get any cozier. Although shortly afterwards on Friday, November 27, the major international competitions will be held in the field of fireworks, which will be fun again!
The ban on releasing the balloons is not that crazy if you know that there is here on Koh Lanta
during Christmas and New Year because of the tsunami a lot of balloons are sent into the air, whatever
is forbidden But if you speak to local fishermen (which I often do because of my restaurant) they are not happy with all the iron remains of balloons that destroy their net and reduce income and these
remains remain on the bottom for many years, which also does not improve the corals
So think about it for 5 minutes of fun
I'm going to give it a try this year. Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai or Udon Thani? I'm not sure about that yet.
Experienced it in Sukhothai, the ruined historical area. Superb, recommended!