Loy Krathong and Yi Peng are two seperate festivals that happen in Thailand. I’d first heard about these festivals while on my short travels in 2020, but had already missed it and kicked myself for not knowing about it sooner. So when Chris and I first talked about come to Asia, and when we might go, we both wanted to make it work to be in Asia for this bucket list occasion. The dates of the festivals were the ultimate decider on the day we left work and home and headed to Asia. So a lot was riding on this being a special thing to be part of.
But what’s special about celebrating these in Chiang Mai though is that both festivals happen at the same time, plus its my favourite city in the world. So it was important to us to be in Chiang Mai for these festivals. So for Yi Peng thousands of people let off sky lanterns, and for Loy Krathong people make of buy floating floral decorative pieces with a candle to light and put in the river to float down stream all on the same evening.
What are these two festivals?
Yi means 'two' while peng means 'full moon day'. It is an annual festival celebrated on the full moon in the second month of the Lanna lunar calendar and usually falls in November. It is believed that Yi Peng originated in India with the legend of the candle-carrying bird that once visited the Gautama Buddha.
Loy Krathong Festival, known as the Thailand Lights Festival, occurs on the night of the full moon of the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar. It is celebrated to give thanks to the Godness of Water by releasing lotus-shaped baskets decorated with candles and flowers onto the rivers and waterways. It is also regarded as an annual celebration to mark the end of the rainy season and welcome the cool reason.
In Thai, loy means to float and a krathong is a small container. Loy Krathong literally means 'to float a basket'. Krathong is traditionally made from banana leaves and a slice of the banana tree. Krathongs often contain a candle, incense sticks, and flowers
How did we join the celebrations?
When in Bangkok, there were a few things being set up for Loy Krathong, but the second we arrived in Chiang Mai we knew we’d made the right choice to spend it there. The drive from the bus station after our night bus to our hostel took us passed hundreds of lanterns hung up outside peoples homes, shops and the temples, and many buildings had a line of small tea light candles set up outside their house too. I instantly knew this was going to be good.
Every night in the lead up to the main festival day, the city it up with lanterns and candles. On a walk around the centre we stumbled across a mile long traditional dance street performance from over 400 dancers. It was a really special thing to stumble across, lines of 4 dancers as far as my eyes could see with candles or incense in each hand, dancing to a live band outside the city hall. When the performance finished we walked down to the city hall, where there was a display of giant lanterns, smaller personalised lanterns and candle displays. This was all just the lead up to the event.
Monday 27th was the main event though. Our cooking instructor at our cooking class in the morning had given us some details about where to head in the evening, when to start our evening, and some of the traditions we should take part in. To the north of the old city walls, a parade started, making its way down a well known street now adorned with light arches and towards the river. We joined the parade for a good chunk of it, walking alongside locals playing music, performances from local schools or professional dance groups, and the carry of the most incredible giant paper boats.
Along the way we stopped at a temple where monks were selling small candle lit lanterns with a monk blessing on the bottom. We were to write a wish or manifestation on to hand outside the temple. We also stopped at a small stall where a mother and daughter were creating the floral offerings, Thathrongs, to place in the river and bought one ready for our turn later in the evening.
After about 30 minutes walking alongside the parade, we made it to the river and found a spot to sit. I’m not sure anything could have prepared me for how magical 5th is view would be. To our left and in front of us were hundreds of candle lit Krathongs floating down the river, and on the right in the near distances hundred of lanterns the sky. Surrounding us were fireworks, from either official displays from events, or people who had bought them for the own celebrations (some of the firework-ing did feel very sketchy at times and put the fear in me once or twice haha😅)
We sat here for about 30 minutes watching locals, families and tourists take part in the festivities, before deciding the light the candle and incense in our Krathong and set it to float down the river. I tell you, lighting it and getting it in the river was harder than we expected haha. I had to squeeze my arm and head through a small gap in the makeshift bamboo bridge set into the water for the occasion. And of course, the second it floated away the candle went out haha.
We later stumbled across the spot where those hundreds of lanterns were coming from, which was conveniently on our walk home. After sitting and watching people setting off lanterns, and strangers in the areas cheering for every successful lantern take off (which was really wholesome), we decided to get our to set off. Chris hadn’t done it before, and I’ve not in years. There are of course safety and environmental concerns about sky lanterns, though apparently the Thai government made it law to only use or sell biodegradable lanterns to try and reduce some of the impacts on the environment.
I have to say it loved it though, there is something really wholesome and sentimental about lighting lanterns and watching them fly away. It was also just really special to be part of the whole experience. Our lantern had a bobbly start, but made it off okay and avoided all trees thankfully!
Other than getting a bottle of Chang to sit on our hostel room balcony and watch the rest of the fireworks and lanterns in the sky, that sums up our first experience of the Yi Peng and Loy Krathong. It may have happened just one week into our 6 month trip but I do think it might be a hard one to beat! If anyone is heading to Thailand in the future new November, I’d really recommend trying to join this occasion (you can pay $200 for a ticket to a private organised event. But. I honestly can’t imagine it’d be worth, it given the most wholesome and authentic experience we had for free. Plus I’ve not heard good things about the very expensive private event)
If I didn’t love Chiang Mai enough already, being part of this has cemented Chiang Mai as my favourite place in the entire world and I feel very blessed to have been part of it.
Although I could write 100 more posts about Chiang Mai, and how much I love it. I should move onto other things to write about soon aha. So my next post I'll share our last few days in the North and our mammoth travel days down to the South!
Thank you for reading, hope you're well
-Morrighan
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