Catching Things on Fire - Loi Krathong

Those of you that know me know that I love fire and may be a bit of a pyromaniac. That said I was extremely excited for Loi Krathong. The traditional Thai festival has floating fire lanterns, floating banana leave offerings with fire, and everyone shoots off fireworks! Yay!



Thaiworldview.com gives a more detailed description of the holiday. “Loy Krathong is as old as Thai heritage and represents a close bond between Thai culture and water. The festival takes place on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month when the water level is high and the climate is cooler. Participants ask water spirits to sail away their troubles in their krathongs, which are containers traditionally made from banana leaves and carrying offerings of incense, lotus flowers and small money.”

Last Thursday, the night of the full moon, the whole school had off the last two periods of the day to make krathongs. Some of the student’s krathongs were very intricate and others were simple yet beautiful in their own right. During those off periods I tried to walk around and take pictures of the school in the krathong frenzy but instead I got pulled onto the floor and was instructed to make my very own.

I am quiet artistic and thought, “Sure, I can do this. Banana leaves and flowers, just put them together and call it a day.” Boy was I wrong. I tried my very own style of banana leave folding and created what I thought was a acceptable looking base for my krathong. However, one of the teachers came up beside me and started taking my krathong apart while laughing. She started making a whole new banana leave structure and tried to tell me that mine was not nice. [I love and hate the fact that in India and Thailand it is acceptable to say “not nice” and then rip someone or something apart. In India my girls would say “Aunty not nice!” if I was showing my knees, shoulders, or if I didn’t have my hair done. Here they say it and just redo whatever you were supposed to be doing in their way. The honesty here is refreshing but also can be unexpected.]

So after the teacher helped me fix my krathong base, one of the other students show me how to “properly” fold banana leaves to make the specific design they were going for. This was much more productive and “my” krathong was finished in under 10 minutes.

I expected to give it back to the teacher that had helped me but she let me take it home and told me to float in down the stream later that evening. Once I got home from school Tanner and I grabbed the fireworks we had bought the week before and headed to the roof to watch the lanterns float into the night sky and set off some of our fireworks.

From our roof we could see lanterns from the whole Mae Sai area being lit and released and had our own bird’s eye view of all the fireworks. Amazing!

Tanner and I had bought bottle rocks and a roman candle to light off for Loi Krathong. He took one and put it in an old medicine container and lit it off. I wasn’t paying much attention to him because the sky was filled with lanterns and fireworks. So when he asked if I wanted to shoot off the next one I said yes. However, I hadn’t watched what he was doing and why. I didn’t want the rocket in the medicine container so I held it in my hand...wrong idea. Tanner tried to tell me it was smarter to have something else hold it, but I am stubborn and wanted to do it my way. I thought that the rocket part detached from the stick so I kept hold of it the whole time....and it exploded.... in my hand.

Whoops! I am fine, but it was hilarious to watch me watch the firework and watch Tanner watch me watch the firework and just let it go off in my hand. He was so surprised that I didn’t let go and I was so surprised that the rocket didn’t detach. It was so ironic that he had just lectured me on firework safety and one exploded in my hand that we both doubled over laughing. We laughed so much and so loudly that our neighbors took notice and thought I was crying and Tanner had hurt me...nope just laughing to the point of tears.

So after the firework explosion and attracting the neighbors Tanner and I decided to go out into the town and find a better place to set off the rest. We hopped on our motorbike and headed down to the stream. Bad idea number two of the night, there was so much traffic that we spent one minute on the bike, parked it and then walked the rest of the way.

My first sighting of a krathong in the water was breathtaking, it was lite up peacefully floating downstream and the water around it glistened with the flickering of the candle inside. Then something moved in the water and grabbed the krathong. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the stream I realized that there were men in the river searching the krathongs. As each krathong would float past they would pick it up, put out the candle, and search through the krathong for any monetary offering.

I wondered if the people upstream realized that their offers were being taken and I wondered in the men in the stream felt like they would have any karmic backlash for taking offerings.

Knowing I wouldn’t get any answers that night Tanner and I continued upstream to find even more men, some now drunk, wadding in the water. It was then I realized that it was more of a game than out of actual need that the men were taking offerings. It became amusing to watch and I took a seat on the riverbanks to light my krathong and observe the chaos that was Loi Krathong.

All around me people were in the river fishing for offerings, families were on the banks lighting lanterns, and street vendors were giddy with happiness because of all the night’s business. As chaotic as it was the sight of the krathongs and lanterns made the night really romantic and gave me a sense of hope.

I realized that I truly believe in the physical act of releasing or burning something that is troubling you. I know that some people write things that are bothering them on paper and burn them. But to see that same wish or thought just float off into the night sky with nothing controlling it but the wind was beautiful and a sense of peace and tranquility washed over me.

The night wrapped up with Tanner and I almost lighting a man’s head on fire when our lantern didn’t release upward and decided to go sideways and then dip down before catching enough air to float off into the distance.

I felt like our lantern was just doing what happens in life sometimes. Sometimes you try and fail a little just to learn that the first step, the actual trying, was the thing that you needed to do to succeed. Our lantern reminded me that even if you fail at least you tired and that everything will work out in the end because you showed the world that you cared enough to try.