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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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