We had Loy Krathong celebrations for the past 3 nights, Nov 11-13. A Krathong is a circular boat made of banana leaves and decorated with flowers, candles, and incense in it. They can be of all sizes, and last night we went to see the parade of the "big" krathongs. These are the floats and they were amazing. The traditional ones made of leaves and flowers were beautiful, but they were some fancy huge ones with built in lights and a generator for the lights and a sound system that leaves you deaf. Those were not really beautiful - just garish! See the video below to see what we mean. This time in the parade there were lots of traditional drummers which was fun, and a lot of floats being "pulled" by boys.
This is a big holiday here with fireworks and firecrackers all over the place for much of the day and night! People line the streets with small candles lit in front of their stores or homes, and the night sky is full of small hot air type cylinders glowing in the sky - very very beautiful, though dangerous for aircraft. The flame is created by a circle of wax-coated cardboard that will burn for quite a while
Actually these "kum loys" are not so small -2-4 ft high and 2-3 feet in diameter. Sometimes fireworks are also attached to the launch, and there is a "competition" to see how many can be attached. If you attach too many you get "failure to launch" and things start exploding on the ground! You will see this in the first section of the video.
The sights and sounds of the parade are a challenge to the senses - sometimes very bright and flashy floats, and at other times, dark but exotic designs using plant leaves and flowers etc. The huge sound systems assault the ears with music or an announcer describing the theme of the float. Oh! and let's not forget the fire crackers that are being exploded in the side streets and temple grounds. People here are much more willing to have them explode at their feet than we are! Also we see quite young kids being allowed to "play" with them.
Photos of the event below
Videos from the parade
Since 2007, Tom and Beverly Westheimer have been going to Chiang Mai, Thailand for four months to escape NH winter. We met and lived in BKK in the 70s for 10 years. We volunteer with http://www.KidsArkFoundation.org, enjoy Thai smiles, warm weather and best of all ... Thai food.
1 comment:
Wonderful. "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!"
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