LOY KRATONG

6th November 2025

Buddhist

Loy Kratong is celebrated in most of the village and town temples in Thailand and often coincides with the local temple’s Kathina Day observance of Anapanasati. The festival takes place on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month when the water level is high and the climate is cooler. This is usually in November when the full-moon lights up the sky, at the end of the rainy season. The festival indicates a close bond between Thai culture and the creative use of the recent heavy rainfall.

Before the festival, small lotus shaped baskets are made out of bread or the bark of a banana tree or rubber plant leaves, all items that will degrade naturally in the water, and these are elaborately decorated with folded banana leaves or lotus flowers in intricate, towering designs. Into these are placed incense sticks, candles, betel nuts and sometimes a small coin. They are then launched on rivers, canals, ponds or the sea. The sight of thousands of krathongs with their flickering candles sending a thousand pinpoints of light far into the horizon is a truly magical sight.

With them goes a wish for good luck, offered to propitiate the spirits of the water. The floating of a krathong is intended to wash away ill fortune as well as to express apologies to Khongkha or Ganga, the River Goddess for misuse or pollution of her domain. Captive eels and turtles are frequently released into the water at this time in her honour.

Hundreds of krathongs are for sale around the main Loy Krathong festivity areas. Often children will make their own versions at school or with their family. They may share in contests in school to see who can craft the most beautiful and artistic float. If your candle stays alight until your krathong disappears out of sight, it is said to mean a year of good luck, and couples can get an insight into the future of their relationships by watching whether their krathongs float together or drift apart.

In recent years Thais have become more creative in their craft, and design the krathongs  from coconut shells, flowers, baked bread, potato slices, some even breaking with the conventional lotus leaf shape in favour of turtles and other sea creatures. On the other hand the base of the krathong often tends currently to be made from synthetic materials and, despite efforts to ban environmentally unfriendly floats, rivers and waterways are often covered with unsightly pieces of styrofoam the next morning.

Loy Krathong vies for the title of most important Thai holiday festival with Songkran, which is held in April. The grandest Loy Krathong celebrations are held in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Large floats are drawn through the streets, fashioned as giant krathongs each with their own theme. Many of the celebrants on the floats dress in regal Thai costumes or as mythical Thai beings, and beauty queens sometimes wave to the crowds.

The history behind the festival is complex, and Thais celebrate for many reasons. The main rice harvest season has ended and it is time to thank the Water Goddess for a year’s worth of her abundant supply. Some believe that this is the time symbolically to ‘float away’ all the anger and grudges and ill fortune people have been holding inside themselves, and including a fingernail or a lock of hair is seen as a way of letting go of the dark side of oneself, to start a new year free of negative feelings.