‘Tis the Season for… Explosions!
Loy Kratong is a Thai festival based on asking the river for forgiveness for polluting it all year long. This is done by releasing little floating lanterns like these into the river.
made of elaborately crafted flowers and banana leaves, they still only cost 20 baht (60 cents)
here are lanterns in the river
People also release lanterns into the air and set off lots and lots… and lots… and lots… of fireworks. One of the nights I went down to the river with some friends to check out the festivities.
Wow. Bridges and roads were closed, diverting traffic away from the craziness.
Tons of people, crowded around the edges of the river, were setting off lanterns, bottle rockets, sparklers, fireworks you fling into the air with a rope, and actual large standard usually-seen-in-a-show fireworks. We had a few near-misses with the bottle rocket crowd, and a few flying lanterns got a bit too close for comfort. A popular thing to do is attach a sparkling firecracker on the bottom of the lantern, so it’s spewing sparks as it flies away. Someone next to us set one of these off, but it didn’t quite fill up completely before they let it go… the lantern caught on fire and Pong, our friend, caught it and wrestled it into the river!
the blazing kom fai after Pong threw it in the river
We set of a few lanterns of our own – withOUT the extra firework – and made sure they flew into the air and not into someone’s body.
We also saw a kom loi get caught in some power lines across the street. We were covered in firework ash by the time we left.
The river is not the only waterway that attracts people. I live right next to the canal that runs the length of Chiang Mai, and there were plenty of people there too. Several nights in a row I saw kom lois floating by my window on the eighth floor. People were setting off all sorts of fireworks into the night, and I had to “get used to” hearing explosions all evening long. On Monday night, the actual date of Loy Kratong, the restaurant across the street on the other side of the canal had a HUGE, LOUD party that involved Thai country music, bad singing, an annoying cowbell noise, and of course fireworks. Innnnnteresting.
So this is Loy Kratong. What an interesting holiday – and a fireman’s worst nightmare! I kept thinking how NONE of this would ever ever ever be allowed to happen in California. Can you imagine?! I’m sure there are tons of fires started here all over the country, but it’s a good thing this holiday comes at the end of the rainy season, when everything is so saturated with water that they probably don’t burn as easily. So Happy Loy Kratong! The celebration here has lasted at least a week, so there’s still time for you to celebrate too—just don’t go start any fires…
