Loy Krathong is an old Thai festival dating back to the Sokhothai period, between the 13th and 16th centuries. It is believed to originate from a traditional practice of paying respect to the water spirits by floating small lotus-shaped boats down the river. During the late 1800s it was adapted as a way to honor the original Buddha, Siddhartha Guatama. Just like many festivals with pagan origins and an added layer of religious significance, nowadays it's mostly just an excuse to stay out late, party, and shoot off fireworks. A good time was had by all.The Loy Krathong festival lasted all week, but the actual day was Thursday. Thursday nights we usually attend a spaghetti dinner hosted by a local couple from Payap University, a Christian university here in Chiang Mai. Since our hosts live close by the river where all the celebrating was going down, a group of our spaghetti night friends headed over to join in the fun. The streets were packed with locals and tourists plus an estimated 100,000 extra Bangkok residents displaced from the floods. In order to avoid the parking nightmare, we walked the 2 km to the Nawarat bridge admiring the extra 100,000 floating lantern stars along the way.
The scene was like the 4th of July, New Year's Eve in Times Square, and Mardi Gras all wrapped into one; minus the topless bead throwing. Plus dodging stray fireworks and floating lanterns really kept us on our toes. Check it out in this short video of the sights and sounds of Loy Krathong:
No comments:
Post a Comment