Krathongs are these little floating rafts made out of banana leafs, flowers, incense sticks and candles. There are some very simple ones and others that are very elaborate done, the elaborate ones are usually judged in contests. People light the incense and candles on them, some place a lock of hair or nail clippings to symbolize the letting go of the bad parts of oneself. The act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot.
Simple Krathongs-
Elaborate Krathongs-
Jeff Lighting the Krathong-
Praying/wishing with the Krathong before releasing it into the water (yes he is standing in the ocean)-
Putting the Krathong in the water. We were on the beach so many of them ended turned over with the waves. The proper way to do this in the river, but we don't have one in Pattaya.
Anther thing that is done in celebration for Loy Krathong is the releasing of the Khom Fai, which are these little hot air balloons... (its more impressive when many of them are released at the same time-but it was to windy for that).
It was windy so some of them ended up in the trees!
Some cute kids enjoying the festival-
After walking around on Beach Road and the Beach we headed down to the always entertaining Walking Street, which was packed. Here are some pictures of the traditional Thai outfits that people like to wear during this festival. As you may notice even though some outfits are traditional female outfits there are men (ladyboys) wearing them. Transvestits are very common here.
1 comment:
You can always count on the lady boys to dress up for an occasion.
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