At the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month, the tide in the rivers is highest and the moon at its brightest. Thai people choose this day to hold the 'Loy Kratong' festival, or the 'festival of light.' Loy Kratong is one of the two most recognized festivals in the country.
For this year, Loy Kratong day is yesterday, the 2nd of November.
Loy Kratong is probably the most picturesque and beautiful of all Thai celebrations. 'Loy' means 'to float,' while 'kratong' refers to the lotus-shaped receptacle which can float on the water.
Picture from http://www.thaiworldview.com/feast/kratong.htm
Originally, the kratong was made of banana leaves or the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or a spider lily plant. A kratong contains flowers, joss sticks and candle. The making of a kratong is much more creative these days as many more materials are available.
The Loy Kratong ritual is a simple one. You just need only to light the candles and the joss sticks, make your wishes and let it float away.
Picture from http://www.thaiworldview.com/feast/kratong.htm
On Loy Krating day, thousands of people will be beside the canals and rivers. With kratong in hands, they light the candle, put some coins in the kratong and silently make a wish, and carefully place their kratongs in the water and release them to the current.
They watch intently as the float drifts silently downstream, hoping that the candle will not go out. Its flame is said to signify longevity, fulfillment of wishes and release from sins. Altogether it is considered a romantic night for couples or lovers. Couples who make a wish together on Loy Kratong are thought to stay together in the future.
Well..... I don't believe it.
There are many different legends surround the origins of Loy Kratong. The most popular version is it was an expression of gratitude to the goddess of water 'Phra Mae Kongka' for having extensively used, and always polluted, the water from the rivers and canals. It is also in part a thanksgiving for her bounty in providing water for the livelihood of the people.
Alright..... enough for Loy Kratong story. If you want more information, it is Googleable as I always say.
Loy Kratong this year is kind of special for me. Din, a friend of mine suggested his idea about making Kratong ourselves. I was excited for this annual occasion.
It made me miss my old days in TU.
The 1st and 2nd year in college, my friends and I joined our school Kratong contest. We spent about 5 days before Loy Kratong day to made a large Kratong. The first couple days were Searching-for-material day while the following days, our Kratong was in process.
We spent almost whole days with it. We headed to our board of student room where the Kratong was waiting for us right after we got out of beds, spent the whole days there and got back when security guards told us to get out of there since it's quite late, 1 or 2 am. If there were some of us had classes, the others would worked with the Kratong and went to their classes when another ones finished theirs and got to the room.
During those several days, we tried to keep the flowers fresh by dilute energy drink with plain water and sprayed the flowers. When our Kratong was finished, its diameter was about 1-meter long. The Kratong was 20-cm thick and weighted about.... hmm.... well.... even 3 of us could not carry it. We needed to use a stroller to move it. But since it's made of banana trunk, leaves and flowers, so it still was floatable.
All of those 2 years we joined the contest, we got silver award and some amount of money as the reward which was less than we have spent to get Kratong materials.
Apparently, we didn't join it for the reward, eh. ;)
We joined the contest just to have fun and to have some activity together.
Regretfully.... I did not have any pictures of those....
After moved to another campus on the 3rd year in college, during these past 6 years, this year, I had my first chance to make my own Kratong again.
Excited, really!
Before in-process pictures, guess which one is mine. ;)
Although my this year Kratong was just my-hand-sized big but I had fun making it.
Banana trunk, banana leaves and flower are what you need.
Instead of fulled of made-of-banana-leave-Thai-styled decorations as those years in college, my Kratong contained only vivid purple and yellow flowers.
I did bad job......, didn't I?
Somehow 6 years are too long to recall my work-on-banana-leave skill, huh?
Somehow 6 years are too long to recall my work-on-banana-leave skill, huh?
As what's on above said, all you have to do is just to light the candle, joss sticks, make your wish and release your Kratong.
Then wish that your candle light won't be gone.
Now... sing Loy Kratong song with me.
November full moon shines,Loi Krathong, Loi Krathong,
and the water's high in the river and local klong,
Loi Loi Krathong, Loi Loi Krathong,
Loi Krathong is here and everybody's full of cheer,
We're together at the klong,
Each one with this krathong,
As we push away we pray,
We can see a better day.
I like the last 2 lines lyrics, ''As we push away we pray, we can see a better day.''
Hey... don't think that it's nonsense song!!
Some Thai students are forced to learn to sing it, you know?
At least, the owner of this blog was one of those!
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