Loy Krathong

Ready! Set! Loy!

We finally got into the spirit of things and celebrated our first Thai holiday, Loy Krathong! Loy means "float," and a krathong is a little banana tree trunk raft made of flowers, candles, incense sticks and banana leaves. This holiday falls on the full moon of the 12th month according to the Thai Lunar calendar and is a time for people to caste their krathongs into the water for luck and other "new year" types of wishes. It is also Thailand's version of Valentine's Day, so many couples float krathongs and the official colour is pink. Something involving couples and pink? Logs could not resist!

This year, Loy Krathong fell a bit early, November 2nd, so let's not waste anymore time! We begin with Logan's day at the office... I mean school...
Logan was excited to get to Thai school on Loy Krathong. They made krathongs in teams and watched the teachers perform dances on the lawn.
The teachers made fun of their krathong, saying it was too heavy and wouldn't float. Then they started calling it Sputnik. All of the krathongs made by the student teams were auctioned off. I think their krathong went for 300-500B!

One of the youngest teachers, Kru Ying, looking extra pretty...

Kru Gop looking extra... Gop-like...

Chains were sold to give to teachers. I don't think this is a traditional Loy Krathong activity, but it did prove who is the most popular teacher, Kru Neng!

The long awaited Issan carrot dance, featuring Logan's favourite teacher Kru Mom and a cross dressing Peter Holm...

The carrot dance would not be complete without... um... whatever this costume is...
All of Logan's AUA Loy Krathong photos are courtesy of a classmate. More exciting photos can be found here.


Meanwhile back at the baby ranch, my kids' Thai teacher helped them make their own krathongs out of aluminum pans, paper and fake flowers with candles.

Since I am awesome, she made me a more traditional krathong.
Okay, fine! All of the teachers got real krathongs. But I am still awesome. Why else would this parent have given me this lovely phuang malai, jasmine garland?!

To celebrate Loy Krathong, my students dressed in traditional Thai outfits for a parade on the basketball court.

Loy Krathong was on the Monday following our Friday Halloween festivities. This meant a second round of my kids sitting on the hot basketball court midday. Ah, the sad faces of poor wilting children!

The K2 TA also teaches lum Thai, traditional Thai dance. Her students put on a little show.

Can you guess which child is my little Fruity?

After suffering through the heat and most of my children either half asleep or crying because they saw their mommies, it was loy time!
Coins are floated in the krathongs to bring you prosperity. The school used the holiday to promote fundraising, so students collected coins from home to add to the class bank. We threw all of the coins in the pool, and the poor maids vacuumed all of them out afterwards!

My favourite outfit that day...


Thai people, maybe this is just in Krung Thep, are polarized when it comes to Loy Krathong. My relatives said they haven't floated a krathong in many years because it gets so congested, and they are afraid of pickpockets. On the other hand, to be congested, there must be a lot of people out their floating krathongs, right?

We decided that Loy Krathong is basically the Taste of Chicago on the 4th of July. That being said, we decided to opt out of the big fireworks display at the Chao Phraya River and went for a cozier night down the street at Suan Santiphap (Peace Park).

P'Nuj & Logan strategizing a launch spot.

The bank of the pond was packed.

We didn't have a lighter for the incense and candle, but this couple let us borrow theirs.

Our krathong. I took an extra one from work and Logan rearranged it. Street vendors were passing out the pink Loy Krathong flags, so we added it to our kiddy krathong.

Go, little krathong, go!

Because our krathong was made from an aluminum pan, it was much lighter than a traditional one with flowers. This allowed it to glide across the water with ease (and luckily it did not tip over). The little flag also proved to be a nice sail.

Since we floated in the park pond and not the river, all of the krathongs eventually end up pooling in a corner.


For those who cannot make their own krathong, there are plenty of street vendors around with a decent selection at reasonable prices (30-60B, under $2USD).

These krathongs are made of play dough.

Happy Turkey Day, Buddies!