Loy Krathong

A few of the teachers from my school, as well as
 the various directors up on the float.

Whoa! Two updates in as many days. I must have nothing better to do.

I thought I'd tell you about a particular holiday we celebrate in November - Loy Krathong.

    Loy Krathong literally translates to "float flower-arrangement," and it is essentially that - putting these little arrangements of flowers and plants with candles in them into the water, where they joyfully float and bob up and down. The whole idea is that we are thanking mother nature and forgiving her for making water dirty throughout the year.  The tradition signifies a sort of "rebirth" of nature and allows us to cleanse our sins away.

Leila and Patrick

Madness! The parade begins.

    First, there is a big parade throughout the entire town - a real challenge to the otherwise rather lazy Thai people, who refuse to exercise for any reason.  One of the Thai teachers jokingly told me that after the parade of Loy Krathong, at least 3-4 kilometers, the rest of the year is devoted to relaxing and recuperating enough to be in the next parade.

Of course, some of the more respectable characters - the higher ups and directors of various important establishments - get to ride out the parade on parade floats. But, the general masses of students from schools all over our province and the normal teachers get to do the walking.  The whole town is either participating in the parade itself or showing support from the sidewalks.

Everyone dresses up.

    After the slowly crawling parade finally reaches the park, a loudspeaker calls out whom, or what, the various groups are representing. With that, we are now allowed to light our candles and send the floats adrift.  Thousands of floats take to the water and a beautiful swarm of flickering candles light up the multi-colored flowers and decorations on each float.  Khom Loi, similar to Chinese lantern, ascend to the heavens.  Since Loy Krathong is also a romantic holiday, you are meant to float your arrangement out with someone special.  According to myth, if your floats stay together and reach the middle of the lake, you will have good luck in love. Aren't Thais romantic?

Floats take to the water, and lanterns can be seen above.

Yaya, the Chinese teacher at my school.
Apparently, our floats never got too far.

For more info on Loy Krathong -----> Click!