NOVEMBER
LOI KRATHONG - 'FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS'
Nationwide
There's something about the Thai festival of Loi Krathong that brings
out the poet in travel writers. The full moon in November sees rivers
overflow with the rainy season's surplus, and publications overflow
with breathless prose. On the night, you may even catch yourself going
goo-goo over what - by any world standard - is a very picturesque
happening. So how come this festival of lights is worth so many
adjectives?
Any event needs a USP (Unique Selling Point) and Loi Krathong's
garnered several eternally resonant components: candles, incense,
monetary donation, flowing water, intricate floral design, enduring
tradition, reflections, and the universal impulse of wishing thanks,
luck and renewal. What's not to like?
Krathong means a folded banana leaf vessel - an impressive,
origami-esque craft even in its simplest variants like the little
rimmed mould for a Thai dessert or the bowl for hor mok, the Thai
seafood soufflé. The krathong that you loi (float) on this festive
night is a buoyant confection of folded leaves roughly resembling an
open lotus bloom. It's decorated with floral sculptures, three sticks
of incense, the soft yellow candle offered at shrines, and
multi-coloured cut-out paper flags fluttering from bamboo spears. Each
one is infused with care, creativity and the ingenious reworking of
indigenous forms.
Any body of water will do - you can spot improvisations like household
fish ponds and plastic paddling pools in Bangkok's Soi Thaniya -
though it should really be flowing, to wash bad luck away, etc.
Precious urbanites do, however, favour still ponds and sluggish canals
having historic backdrops, preferably with costumed couples on hand to
daintily dip their oblation amid reassuring heritage symbolism and the
omnipresent strains of the 'Loi Krathong Song'. After all, there's
something magical about pristine reflections of flames, plus your
krathong stays flickeringly intact long enough to pose with it in a
photo. And few relish risking some passing boat's wake capsizing their
krathong, not least because you launch it with a wish and there's
meaning behind all this prettiness.
A krathong's exquisiteness is all the more alluring given the brevity
of its existence. As every Buddhist knows, nothing's impermanent, and
soggy krathongs get reclaimed by nature (and municipal cleaners) as
soon as their moment's over. So if it sinks, smile.
Thais have set offerings adrift on streams for centuries in thanks to
the Hindu goddess of water, Mae Khongkha, for providing
life-sustaining water throughout the year and in asking forgiveness
for polluting the water. No wonder Loi Krathong has grown so big
during the industrialisation of the country. That roads are jammed for
hours in the direction of any waterway is a touching tribute to the
urban Thais' residual rural conscience and a connection with tradition
that's increasingly marginalised by materialism. And it's done en
masse, so it's sanuk (fun) - particularly if you fall in.
That's a quality appreciated by even the globalised generation.
There's an edutainment aspect to this particular ritual since many
feel the impulse to personalise their krathong with a lock of hair and
a nail clipping to purge bad luck from their body. And you should part
with a few baht to leave aboard - only for predatory young kids to
dive after your raft and retrieve the change. Think of it as wealth
redistribution.
Why buy prêt-à-porter off the shelf when you can tailor a bespoke
krathong according to your taste? Pier side stalls may also hide
ecologically damaging Styrofoam under their skirt of zig-zagging
coconut fronds instead of traditional banana tree trunk, which has air
in its lightweight cells. So go to a daytime market, and buy a slab of
yuak gluay (banana tree), sheafs of tang maprao (coconut leaves) and
bai tong (banana leaf), plus some floral touches. Avoiding the few bad
luck blooms like lan thom (homonym of the word for sorrow), you can
choose almost any flower. Most auspicious are bua (lotus buds), dao
reuang (yellow chrysanthemum), dok kulab (rose), and the usually
purple baan mai rue roy (globe amarantus), the 'bloom that never
wilts' of many an altar offering.
Oh, and don't forget to ask someone how to fold the banana leaf cones
and coconut leaf fringing around the rim. If you don't have a Thai
friend on hand, the vendors will be so astonished you're doing this
that they're sure to demonstrate some techniques. Or jocularly
supervise your attempts. (Tip: keep pinning your weaving with bamboo
pins so the repeatedly curled-out braids don't spring undone.) Where
curlicued leaves form points you can insert the tiny white, necked
droplet bud dok phud, to emphasise that authentic jeeb krathong (leaf
twisting) look.
So where to loy your krathong? Rivers are good, and bobbing in a boat
opposite Wat Arun is even better. Bangkok's canals might be polluted,
but Klong Lod's bridge rimmed confines are irresistibly fairy lit,
while the ponds in Chulalongkorn University, Saranrom Park and
Lumphini Park are particularly popular. The reflecting pools in the
ruins of Sukhothai are the spiritual home of the ceremony and
predictably crowded.
If you choose Chiang Mai, you'll find your jeeb krathong skills are
redundant. You should have taken paper-pasting classes instead, as
khon meuang (people of the principalities as independent northerners
dub themselves) conduct the ritual using paper lanterns as tall as a
man. Fuelled by little furnaces slung from the open neck, khom yipeng
sometimes trail a sparkling firework once launched by a group of
people, which adds a nice communal dimension. A sky full of these
illuminated balloons drifting into infinity conjures the same sense of
wistful closure as the krathongs flowing downstream. Last year's karma
is neatly accounted for and you've got a clean slate once more.
Contact information
TAT Tourism Information Hotline
Tel: 1672
Long Sapao Chao Wiang
Lakorn
( Loy Krathong) Festival
Date:
19 - 20 November
Location:
Lampang
Detail/
Activities:
Contact:
Lampang Municipal Office
Tel:
(66 53) 219 211-7 Ext
297
Mae Hong Son Loy
Krathong Festival
Date:
19 - 20 November
Location:
Mae Hong Son
Detail/
Activities:
Contact:
Mae Hong Son Tourism
Tel:
(66 53) 612 982-3
Lamphun Red Cross and
Winter Fair
Date:
28 November - 08 December
Location:
Sport- Lamphun Stadium
Detail/
Activities:
Contact:
Lamphun Provincial
Tel:
(66 53) 511 555
CHIANGRAI 14TH HILLTRIBE FESTIVAL
Date:
Location:
Detail/
Activities:
Contact:
Tel:
(66 53)
The above
schedule are subject to changes without prior notice
Kindly contact the various tourism and city council or agencies for
the latest information
For
further information and enquiry on Chiang Mai Thailand, kindly contact: TOURISM AUTHORITY OF THAILAND (TAT) Northern Office: Region One 105/1 Chiangmai - Lamphun Road, Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai 50000
Tel: (66 53) 248 604, 248 607 and 241 466. Fax: (66 53) 248 605
Email: tatcnx@samart.co.th
Website:
www.tat.or.th :
www.tourismthailand.org
Office Hours: 08:30 am to 04:30 pm (Monday - Friday)
