Years ago when I lived in Bangkok, I hardly knew anything about Thailand and Thai
celebrations. So it was completely a matter of luck that I happened to be there around the time of the
Loi Krathong Festival, which this year took place in Bangkok a
few days ago. Loi Krathong is traditionally performed on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month, usually in
November.
It’s a pretty cool experience. It seems like the whole town comes out and every man, woman and child floats a
‘Krathong’ – a banana–leaf cup – on the canal (or klong…which can be really dirty, awful-smelling things). The
Krathong is intended to float away ill fortune and to express apologies to Khongkha or Ganga, the River
Goddess. I remember it well. The canal was filled with these little burning boats and everyone was singing the Loi
Krathong song…which seemed to me at the time an
appealing tune of which I understood just two words:
Loi Krathong. Sort of like the Hari Krishna song. Anyway, this years festival was a big success and you can catch video
bits of it here.