Loy Krathong

Yesterday Joan and I were picked up by our new Thai Teacher. She drove us to her "School" a ground floor room, presumably under her house. The teachers were her husband, mother-in-law and another helper. We were the last of 15 or so to arrive and it was a special lesson about the history and culture of Loy Krathong; a Buddhist festival that happens at the full moon at this time of year.

After a talk about how Loy Krathong started (no one is very sure), and what it's all about (this varies too); we got to make a traditional Krathong, see opposite.
These krathongs are made of a slice of banana stem, decorated with folded banana leaves and flowers. They usually have incense sticks in and candles on. Some people put bits of their finger nails or hair clippings in; which represent casting off negative thoughts and attitudes.
The whole thing seems to be about thanking the river goddess for the year's harvest and appeasing her for polluting the river as they use it.

As the full moon rises the people in Chiang Mai go down to the river Ping and put these kranthongs into the river and, as you can imagine, that's only the beginning of the celebrations! Here they also celebrate Yi Peng at the same time. This involves sending off thousands of paper sky lanterns and fireworks. The sight is absolutely spectacular. A huge procession of musicians, singers and dancers; along with fire breathers and assorted others join in the fun.The whole City centre grinds to a halt and it can get a bit scary as the fireworks are monsters and many younger men are none too bothered about where they set them off!Below are some pictures of the evening's entertainment. Getting home was a challenge, we had to abandon the tuk-tuk and walk!