Asia - Loi Krathong Festival Thailand

Information about Loi Krathong (http://www.tourismthailand.org/activitiescalendar/detail.aspx?group=monthly&id=152) seems to be scattered among several threads, so I thought I'd localize it here.

"As the full moon of the twelfth lunar month (usually in mid-November) lights up the night sky, throughout the Thai kingdom, hundreds of thousands of ornately-decorated krathong or traditional banana leaf floats are set adrift in rivers and waterways in a spell-binding ritual called Loi Krathong - the 'festival of lights". This is one of the Kingdom's oldest and best-preserved traditions."

Don't expect your krathong to get very far on the waters. Since the custom is to include some coins on the krathong, their voyage is often soon interrupted.

In 2006, this is celebrated nationwide on 5 November.

This was one of the best parts of our trip last year. We were down on Koh Chang and set our krathong off into the sea. There were also these balloons with lights under them that were really cool.

I've been fortunate enough to be in Bangkok twice for this festival. Bought my 'boats' from school kids. What fun!

A lot of Loy Kratong festivities are being scaled back or curtailed, at least in/around Bangkok, as a result of the recent flooding.

Don't expect your krathong to get very far on the waters. Since the custom is to include some coins on the krathong, their voyage is often soon interrupted.


In Bangkok in particular, you can buy some HUGE krathongs - so put a lot of money in there. On Phuket - we usually just have the little ones - and put out to sea they don't go far. In Bangkok they do float down the klongs a good bit.