Loi Krathong 2018 - With Videos!

I wrote recently about how I loved Christmas despite its religious origins. Well another festival I love is Loi Krathong. Steeped in Buddhism, although not truly a Buddhist festival, it is celebrated in Thailand and many other local countries in the region on the date of the 12th full moon of the year as defined by the traditional Thai lunar calendar. This year, that equates to November the 22nd.

Loi Krathong is a festival of lights, and involves floating (Loi, ลอย) a basket (krathong, กระทง) made from leaves on water, whatever that watercourse maybe, in our case the Khlong (canal) at Rangsit. Thailand has a lot of water to choose from, especially around low lying Bangkok where the system of irrigation to mitigate the chance of flooding is one of the modern marvels of the world!

On the day, there are literally hundreds of stalls set-up to sell Krathong, almost all hand made from a base of a slice of banana tree trunk with an intricately woven banana leaf on top and garnished with a candle. Some use a base of bread and some are, or were made from the evil styrofoam, but more about that later. They come in all sizes, and in Bangkok, a competition takes place on the banks of the Chao Praya river to find the biggest and most elaborate Krathong. They say you can tell a lot about someone by the size of their Krathong.........Let's not dwell on that thought too long and move swiftly on.

As well as a candle, traditionally the Krathong is garnished with a coin, said to be an offering to the spirits of the river, three incense sticks and some people add a nail clipping or some hair as a way of saying sorry for past sins. The festival has a number of different interpretations for different people.

For the Buddhist part, the candle is supposed to cast a light on Buddha and the floating is supposed to be a way to release your anger, pain and hatred, but as I just read on Wikipedia, the floating part wasn't introduce until the 1940's in Chiang Mai This doesn't suprise me. Those Chaing Mai-ians (is that a real word?) manage to eke out this festival into 3 days, they manage to eke out the normally 3 day Songkran festival into 5 days! They've got partying down to an art it seems!

I said it wasn't traditionally a true Buddhist festival, and infact, many Thais consider it a festival thats been adapted from an ancient ritual to appease the water spirits and again, up North in Lanna territory, adapted from Yi Peng, where traditionally, masses of sky lanterns were lit and 'floated' up into the sky. In the west we call them 'Chinese lanterns', but in Thai they are called 'khom loi' (โคมลอย), but like the krathongs, more about them later. It suddenly struck me as to what Chinese lanterns are called in China: Our lanterns?
In Hindu culture, the festival is said to be the time to show respect and thanks to the Goddess of water; Goddess Ganga. I think I like her!

So. You buy your Krathong, clip your nails, cut your hair, search your pockets for some loose change and after lighting up the candle and the joss sticks, place it in the river and send it on its way as you make a wish. I usually say sorry to the water spirits, thanks to the Goddess and add a couple of extra coins by way of apology for getting pissed and coming home late last week. I like to cover all bases!

All in all, its just a lovely night. Where we like to go in Saphan Dang, Rangsit, the road by the canal is closed, stages are erected and a huge food market set up. Theres music and dancing and plenty of places to get down to the waters edge to gently float your Krathong. Its a great atmosphere and everyone is in high spirits, and there are fireworks!

Sorry about the distortion, it was bloody loud, but to be honest, the distortion sounds a whole lot better thsn the music it is masking!

Earlier I mentioned the lanterns they release mainly in Chiang Mai and its a beautiful sight to behold as a never ending stream of lanterns float up into the night sky, often accompanied by flashes and bangs of a million fireworks. Its illegal!

Flight Carnage

Illegal? Yes. The civil aviation authority finally got sick of cancelling flights due to the dangers posed by the lanterns, especially on the flight paths into Chiang Mai and both the Bangkok Airports that they made the lanterns illegal in Chiang Mai and added a firework ban in Bangkok Metropolitan area.

As you can see from these pictures, in Saphan Dang, which is just 2 miles north of the boundary between Bangkok and Pathum Thani provinces, and despite it being directly under the flight path into Don Mueang airport just 3 miles south, we still had loads of fireworks!

Joking apart, according to figures in the Bangkok Post. In 2017, 78 flights in and out of Chiang Mai had to be cancelled and another 89 rescheduled, and over 100 in and out of the two Bangkok Airports. Whoops. Despite the lantern ban, its was also reported that over 100 lantern remains had been picked up within Chiang Mai Airport itself!

More Bad News

The other problem is the water pollution due all the burnt out Krathongs floating about in it! Now I mentioned before that some were made from bread which is excellent as the fish eat the bread. The ones made from slices of banana tree trunk, although being biodegradeable, clog up the waterways and sluice gates and turn up all over the river banks making everything look dirty, especially with the remains of candles and joss sticks, not to mention oodles of big toe nails!

The remains beginning to pile up :-(

As for the styrofoam ones. Oh dear. They are just trash, and need to definitely be fished out. However, the Thai governement recognised the problem and banned the Styrofoam ones in some areas. According to figures released by the Bangkok Metropolitan Council, in 2016, over 6 tonnes of rubbish was collected from the rivers and canals comprising over 660,000 krathong remains of which almost 45,000 were made from styrofoam. Thankfully these figures continue to fall but there is still a lot of work to be done to rid the waterways of this disgusting man-made material.

And Finally.....

This final video clip shows quite a few people in rubber rings floating about in the already dirty water thats full of catfish, snakes, lizards and all manner of shit, risking life and limb to collect the cokns from the Krathongs as they float past! Inhave no idea whether this is for themselves or some local charity but its a bizarre sight to say the least lol....

Enjoy the floating Krathong catchers, and the exact location has been uploaded to @steemitworldmap

Thanks for dropping by. Your Upvotes and Resteems are gratefully received but your comments and engagement are truly appreciated. Let's keep up the debate. Thank you

@nathen007

Life's not all about the hustle. It's all about the humanity

All photos and video were taken by me and additional information taken from Wikipedia, The Bangkok Post and Bangkok Metropolitan Area newsletter.