November 5, 2025
Loy Krathong
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Loy Krathong
I even put my long black pants on to go to Loy Krathong! I was remembering the past when everyone seemed to be wearing their best traditional clothing, bending down at the banks of the Mae Ping in Chiang Mai and pushing their krathongs out to hopefully catch the current. It was a very solemn and quiet ceremony, everyone thinking of the bad things they wanted to send down the river in their little banana leaf vessels. The candles in the krathongs lit up their beautiful faces and I knew I was witnessing a very special and very Thai tradition. That was 51 years ago.
I wore my long black pants out of respect thinking the ceremony would be as solemn as when I last saw it. There were a few women, mostly older, who wore their pha sinhs (long, straight, beautifully woven silk skirts) but Thais are now about as casual as Americans. (In fact, Thais are very much like Americans.) There were some who stood by the banks of the Kuang River in Lamphun in silent repose, some with raised palms to their foreheads in wais, some who knew solemnity also evolves and this was today's solemnity, some who didn't want their flip flops to be sucked off by the mud and some who wanted the damp-from-humidity incense to light better with their 15 cent lighters before their fingers were burning hot.
I watched one young couple bring their one shared krathong down to the riverbank and they did get the three sticks of incense and one candle lit. Then together they held it while in deep thought. They must have been in love to have only one shared krathong. They were pinning their hopes on getting rid of all bad things each of them had as well as all the bad things they might have had as a couple. Finally they had said all their prayers and together they launched it. Unfortunately their krathong immediately flipped over dousing the candle and the incense. Frantically they tried to right it but it was basically a total loss. There was going to be no relighting of anything and the now soggy flowers were making it nearly impossible to float right side up. I saw the despair on their faces and then I had to look away. They might have taken it as a bad omen that their relationship was done for. I hoped not.
Maybe people put too much significance to such things. Or, maybe that couple really wasn't going to stay together anyway. Or, maybe they will stay together the rest of their lives and be able to laugh about their first Loy Krathong together and how they thought they would certainly never make it as a couple.
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In the midst of the mass of people coming down to the riverbank I watched as one guy crouched down and started clipping his fingernails. He made sure he saved the clipped nails and he carefully placed them in his krathong. If you have something of your actual self inside the vessel as it floats downstream it makes it more personal and thus more likely that your bad stuff will attach to that stuff that was actually a part of you in your little krathong sailing down the river never to be seen or dealt with again. Some put their own hair in their krathongs too.
Most of the krathongs made it out to the current and were carried downstream. I, of course, being from Minnesota, wondered if all that bad energy being sent downstream enmasse wasn't going to affect people living along the banks of the river downstream and make their lives a living hell. Isn't the poor guy who has a house on the riverbank going to be hit with a ton of bad luck? There is never any mention of that. Maybe all the krathongs sink not far downstream or they all get hung up or destroyed on a dam. They are supposed to all be made of biodegradable material now so maybe they fall apart fairly quickly.
Andrea and I each had krathongs which we bought for 60 cents each. Imagine sitting and making a krathong carefully folding over strips of banana leaves into intricate designs, arranging flowers on it and positioning three sticks of incense and one candle and selling it for only 60 cents! On the other hand, isn't it nice that they have not raised the price of a krathong so that everyone can afford to send off their bad things. It would be a different atmosphere if the price for a krathong had gone up to $10 like it would have in the U.S. The Thais may not be wearing as nice clothes as they once did for Loy Krathong but their respect remains, on many levels. And it is still an incredibly lovely ceremony. I'm really glad Andrea got to experience it finally. And I'm really glad that we went to much smaller Lamphun instead of staying in tourist-saturated Chiang Mai. I hope that we are now free of all our bad things so that this bike trip can be the best ever!
So, that was the scene right along the banks of the river. On the two bridges the riff raff were having quite a lot of fun with fireworks. Occasionally there were loud booms but for the most part it wasn't that bad. The worst part was all the smoke which with no breeze to blow it away hung like inside a room because of the thousands of lanterns overheard acting like a ceiling.
And because this is Thailand there were, of course, lots of food vendors set up on one lane of the street under the lanterns as well.
Also people were launching hundreds of khom loi. They are large square paper boxes open at the bottom where the fuel is placed. The fuel looked like a wax ring that you put down over the sewer pipe when you are installing a toilet. They burned about the same however I have never burned a wax ring so how can I say that? It was something with a very peculiar smell and it burned rather intensely. Two or three people would hold the paper box thing while someone got the ring burning and as the paper box got more and more filled with hot air the people could eventually let it go and it would rocket into the sky thousands of feet high. I figure they are an excellent way to light forests on fire or even buildings but that would be a long way away, so no problem. They were banned in Chiang Mai long ago. They are fun to watch, glowing orange, especially when there are hundreds of them dotting the black sky. People were very excited about lighting them.
Everyone was having a great time. I turned to Andrea and said that I figured every single person there was having a fantastic time. Smiles all around. And there were a whole lot of people there.
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Then a parade with floats and high school bands came slowly through the massive crowd. All of a sudden we were stuck there and couldn't move. Our guesthouse front gate was to close at 10PM and it was approaching 9. I started calculating how long it would take us to get through the crowds that were packed right up to the parade floats and then walk the rather long distance back to our guest house before we turned into pumpkins. Actually I didn't see how we were going to get out at all but then it started to rain and some people scrambled. It made for our only opening, a gift from the gods, and we made a break for it. It was still hard going because the rain only lasted for a couple of minutes and the crowds calmed down and re-formed tightly. I was glad the rain had stopped though. The last thing anyone there wanted was rain on their beautiful parade. We moved along the route whenever we saw small openings and we got back to our guest house just in time. It was a great Loy Krathong and even better if everyone's wishes come true. I do wish I hadn't just clipped my fingernails the day before, however. What was I thinking!
lovebruce
Today's ride: 9 miles (14 km)
Total: 35 miles (56 km)
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