Thailandia. : เทศกาลลอยกระทง

Loy Krathong is a festival that originated in Sukhothai (where we saw all the ancient ruins) and is now a national holiday in Thailand. A loy krathong is a floating offering that you put into a lake or river for the festival. The festival was started by Buddhist monks to honor Buddha but now it is more common for everyone to make loy krathongs and release them into the water to thank the Goddess of Water.

Many tourists know this festival as "The Lantern Festival" but lanterns are a more of a new addition to the Loy Krathong festival but it was the only part that we were familiar with and we had been waiting months for this festival! We had seen pictures like this

and thought that the festival would be like this but because the lanterns are a new addition to the Loy Krathong Festival there only these beautiful sights in Chiang Mai and Sukhothai. But Phichit's festival still had PLENTY to offer.

The day started out with the kids, in traditional Thai clothes, playing traditional games with their Thai teachers.

Sydney, Bonus, Praewa, Phuvit, Ongry, Mhew, Max, Yada, Gui, and Fei-Fei

Then the kids went to their classrooms to get their Loy Krathong that they had made the day before.

Making their offerings with Teacher On

Maenie, Me Me and Chef

Chef, Me Me and Maeni from the back so you can appreciate their fake hair pieces.

Tunwa

Pear and Mon Mai

Me Me and Moo Pee trying to smile

Praewa and I

My K3 class!

Next, what I called "limo golf carts" pulled up to take us to the lake to put our loy krathongs in the water. The entire ride to the lake (around ten minutes) the K3 class, my class, sang a traditional song for the festival that their teacher had been teaching them. Everyone we passed loved it and we all waved, we felt like we were in a parade! It was so fun to be out in public with our kids! They were so funny, anything of importance that we passed they would yell, "Teacher, teacher! Look!" I remember refusing to admit my teachers in elementary school had a life outside of school... and the fact that us English teachers ACTUALLY live at the school I'm sure it makes it much easier for them to imagine us as I imagined my teachers.

Me on the limo with the kids

Phuvit, Fei-Fei and me... obviously the most excited one for the ride.

Don't worry Fei-Fei is just growling... it's a common occurrence.

He pretends to be a Ben Ten alien at least twice a day.

Once we arrived at the river, we lined up and one class at a time, we put in our offerings.

Fei-Fei

Waiting in line, Preawa is so cute!

One class placing their loy krathongs in the water

Ongry and I

Fei-Fei

Yindee and Gui (in the background) with their loy krathongs

These were next to the dock where we let our offerings off and there was a competition that night for the best one, we thought they were all beautiful.