DAY 73: LOI KRATHONG’S BEAUTY

Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

Loi Krathong is a religious festival that occurs on full moon during November. This characteristic festival is celebrated throughout Thailand, but one of their main bases is in Chiang Mai. We had strategically arrived during the festival (3 day long festival) to enjoy their celebrations. Merel and me have watched how Buddhists commemorate their Gods and how grateful they are towards the Ping river for their crops.

The festival consists of long procession’s, light spectacle, hilarious beauty contests for Mr and Ms Loi Krathong, numerous religious ceremonies in temples, handicrafts contests and finally the most awaited ceremony: Releasing of Krathong’s near to the Nang bridge. The Krathong’s are the names given to the flying lanterns. They release uncountable laterns into the sky. This image is pretty well known by the general public worldwide. We were going to attend to such spectacle!

After a while walking around we chose our location by the river. Around 19:00 the Krathong’s were permitted. For obvious security reasons they do it during some tight timings.. Just imagine you are a plane hehe, nice but really not safe.

Before the release the locals would place their floating Krathong’s into the Ping river, to show their gratitude for all the goods things it has provided them during centuries. The mix of floating laterns on the water, dim light surrounding the river and the mysterious shadows created by the full moon light made the scenery über beautiful.

At 19:00 things began to go fast. First you would see only some flying lanterns but after a while you couldn’t count them anymore. Everybody just starred above mesmerised with the lights in the sky. They were so many lanterns that it seemed as if the sky was lighted up by common stars. Merel said that it was the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life. Now, that is a statement! This lasted for several hours. Nobody got tired of looking up. Well, maybe some people began to have some pain on their necks. Nothing else to add than beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…