Why is Loi Krathong festival in Chiang Mai special?

Loi Krathong float
One of the beautiful floats in procession – Chiang Mai City

One of the main Chiang Mai lantern festival celebrations is Loi Krathong. When Thailand’s Loi Krathong festival in Chiang Mai is in full swing, my village is buzzing with activity. I promise to learn how to make a krathong every year, but I’m usually too busy. And it is party time for three days.

The official days allocated never seem to stop anyone from letting off fire-crackers days in advance. The villagers have been busy building their colourful floats for the street processions in the old city.

How to make a Krathong

Many banana trees are cut down so that people can make their little decorative Krathong boats. They then float (loi) them down the river at night. They are made from slices of the main banana trunk, wrapped in stripped banana palm leaves, decorated with fresh flowers, incense and candles.

The Loi Krathong festival begins

When the monsoon has gone there may still be bouts of heavy rain overnight. It soon clears and the sun becomes bright and hot again with just a gentle cooling Northerly breeze. The rice has been harvested so the farmers can relax a little and use their skills to make Loi Krathong another fun party.

Chiang Mai City is always packed with thousands of revellers, beauty contests and snazzy floats on the last day of the festival. And at the end people send thousands of sky lanterns (khom loi) floating up and away on the breeze of the night sky. It’s a beautiful sight, particularly if the full moon dominates a cloudless sky. People also adorn their houses, trees and walls with lanterns where they are either hung or free standing.

Releasing the bad

The Chiang Mai lantern festival of Loi Krathong is always held on the full moon of the twelfth Thai month. It is believed to originate from an ancient ritual in which people pay respect to the water spirits, and thank the Goddess of water.

Krathongs are made from a circular slice of freshly cut down banana tree, skilfully wrapped in a piece of the leaf. Then it is decorated with incense sticks, candles and flowers. When the candle, which is lit in reverence to the Buddha, and the incense sticks are burning the Krathong is launched. It floats into a calm sea, river, canal or lake, and your Krathong is accompanied by a wish. Mine is usually ‘please don’t let it rain until Loi Krathong is over and we’ve all gone home’. The Krathong floating away from you is a symbolic gesture releasing any pent up anger or hatred.

The Loi Krathong feastival has special meaning in Chiang Mai

The Loi Krathong festival has special meaning in Chiang Mai because Lanna is where it originated. It is the most spectacular, captivating and engaging of all the Thai festivals. A big festival, where thousands of Khom Fai (sky lanterns) are floated into the air during a Buddhist ceremony.

It is held a few days ahead of the actual Loy Krathong/Yi Peng festival in San Sai district near Maejo University, 20 km north of Chiang Mai near my home.

English: A big festival, where thousands of Kh...
Thousand of lanterns fly into the night sky (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

N.B. – Lanna was a powerful Kingdom in the North between the 13th and 18th centuries.

  1. Oh yes Belu.
    It really is lovely.
    In fact all the festivals are very pleasant except the main one, Sonkhran where everyone just uses up all the precious water, in the dry, hot season trying to drown each other for a week because they are all pissed out of their brains.
    Sorry, that wasn’t very nice but it’s true.
    The roads are death traps (more than usual) so I stock up on food and lock myself up for a week till it’s over.

    See you soon.

    James