04 November 2017

Loi Krathong 2560 BE/2017 CE

Loi (Loy) Krathong festival is celebrated on about the Full Moon of November, after the Rainy Monsoon season has ended.  Little baskets are floated on waterways with lit candles.  It is a long tradition going way back into pre-history. 

Tonight has been the biggest local Loi Krathong celebration in my neighborhood in many years.  The Great Flood of 2011 temporarily killed the tradition here for half a dozen years.  But tonight it was revived completely to its pre-2011 levels.  Crowds of people, many with infants in their arms and small children in hand, completely block the sidewalks in my neighborhood.  Young couples on dates stroll through the crowds.  It is supreme festivity.  Brilliant lights are everywhere, lighting children’s rides and attractions.  People hawk great-smelling foods and various wares, including Krathong baskets woven out of banana leaves with candles and decorations. 

After dark I entered the crowds and walked my very shortest normal walkway route around by the river and the Rama 7 Bridge and then on around to the nearest “flyover” elevated pedestrian bridge over the highway to near home, about 2 km roundtrip.  But it took me a long, long time because the normally open sidewalks were absolutely packed with people.  I anticipated this, so I wore no backpack and had minimal valuables in my pockets (pickpocket precautions).  I squeezed slowly through the crowds – and Thai people are usually extremely polite and pleasant in such circumstances.  It was a joy to see the happy benevolent faces of these people, and I was the only farang in the area. 

Under the bridge is a renewed tradition of a temporary stage with loud music and Thai folk dancers.  In other years past, I would climb the stairs to the Rama 7 bridge’s pedestrian walkways to see the people below floating their candle-lit krathongs on the river.  But tonight there are too many people on these stairways and I could not even get close to the river.  I just moved on through the crowds until they thinned out up near the flyover.  As I walked back toward the traffic intersection near my home soi, the crowds again became packed, with motorcycles parked everywhere on the sidewalks.  I finally broke through the jam and into my quiet soi and on home. 

It is really good to see festivities return to our neighborhood, even if temporarily once a year. 

-Zenwind.

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