Loi Krathong

After a busy weekend of lots of people visiting and an awesome night out on Soi 11 again, we escaped the hectic-ness of Bangkok by retreating to one of the local parks on Sunday evening.

Loi Krathong is a special festival held in Thailand on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month according to the Thai Lunar calendar which this year worked out to be the 17th of November.

Loi means to float and krathong refers to the lotus-shaped container which floats on the water. The "boat" is traditional made from a slice of the trunk of a banan tree and then banana leaves are elaborately folded over for decoration along with flowers, incense sticks and candles.

Thai’s celebrate Loi Krathong for various reasons, but for the most part it is to float away any anger and bad feeling you may have and start afresh. You can place a hair or fingernail on the Krathong which is seen as letting go of the dark side. Once the Krathong is then released on to the water you can watch it float away and it will bring you good luck for the year. The further it floats and the longer your candle stays alight the more good luck you will have. A small coin is sometimes included as an offering to the river spirits to pay respect to them as they will bring you all the luck. 

With love from Thailand xxx