Loy Krathong Festival lights up the sky and waterways across the nation
LOCATIONS SET as Loy Krathong Festival venues across the nation became lively yesterday with locals and foreign tourists enjoying the festivities.
Major provinces saw crowds watching parades of giant floats representing government and private agencies, beauty pageant contests, and stage performances, while many sent off Krathong floats onto rivers and ponds as an apologetic gesture to the Goddess of River.
In Bangkok, city police deputy chief Pol Maj-General Panurat Lakboon said police would provide security at 71 locations across the city as Bangkok celebrated Loy Krathong.
Officials in Thai traditional clothing bring the paraquin containing the Fai Phra Luek (royal flame) and Phra Prateep lanterns from His Majesty the King and all members of the royal family to the ceremonial stand within Sukhothai Historical Park yesterday to mark the official start of the Loy Krathong Festival.
Panurat also led officers to ensure that safety measures were in place at “Asiatique The Riverfront”, which expected the city’s largest festival turnout of about 30,000 people, followed by Chulalongkorn Pier with about 5,000 revellers and the area under the Rama 8 Bridge with another 4,000 revellers.
A foreign tourist takes a selfie with the “Phang Prateep” baked-clay candle display at the Three Kings’ Plaza on Thursday evening, as the Loy Krathong Festival is officially launched with an impressive performance of 300 traditional dancers.
Panurat instructed officers at all Bangkok precincts to watch out for youth street racers who might create disturbances during the festival, especially at known locations, including Kaset Nawamin, Bang Na-Trat, Chaeng Wattana, Kanchanapisek, and Rama IV roads.
Teachers and some 200 students of Podaeng Wittaya School in Kalasin’s Yang Talad district join a Loy Krathong Festival celebration yesterday as they place flower-filled floats onto a makeshift pond made of old sacks and tent canvas in the middle of the school’s football field. The school’s swimming pool isn’t yet repaired almost a month after a flood subsided after ravaging the area for months.
Meanwhile, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, General Surasak Karnjanarat, has urged all ministerial agencies to encourage people to use more environmentally-friendly materials for their floats in the festival. He also urged people to use smaller floats and to share floats to reduce the amount of garbage that city workers have to dispose of the next day.
One report said that out of the 929,329 Krathong floats collected in Bangkok after the festival in 2008, a total of 811,332 – or 87 per cent – were made of banana stalks/leaves or other natural materials and 117,997 (13 per cent) out of polystyrene foam. After authorities campaigned for more natural or environmentally-friendly materials, the number made of polystyrene dropped gradually until 2016.
A follow-up report showed that of 661,935 floats collected after the festival in Bangkok, 617,901 (93.7 per cent) were made of banana stalks/leaves or other natural materials and only 44,034 (6.7 per cent) from polystyrene
Down South, Songkhla’s Hat Yai district was buzzing with a large number of Malaysian and Singaporean tourists enjoying the celebrations. Festivities were held at two main venues – a celebration in nostalgic flare featuring food from four regions at the Bang Hak Pier Near Khlong U-tapao, and a celebration under a “Thai Temple Fair” theme at the Nakhon Hat Yai Municiplaity Park.
Up North, Chiang Mai City municipal mayor Thatsanai Boorabupakorn led officials to attend a rite yesterday morning to give various offerings to supernatural beings ahead of the grand celebration later at night.
Chaing Mai people – as well as those in the upper North – call the festival “Yee Peng” (full moon of Lanna lunar calendar’s second month), and decorate houses and temples with beautifully illuminated lanterns and light small baked-clay candles to worship the “Three Gems” of Buddhism.
People also launched floating lanterns into the night sky to get rid of misfortune – the activity that earlier prompted Chiang Mai Airport to reschedule and cancel some flights between yesterday and today as a safety measure. A large number of lanterns in the sky could be a danger to aviation.
Chiang Mai authorities’ have announced that fire lanterns can only be released during Yi Peng and Loy Krathong festivals between 7pm and 1am.