Loy-kra-tong at Chula

Loy Kra-Tong is an annual festival in Thailand held on a full moon sometime in October/November – I think it must be an equinox thing – whenever you ask anyone what it is about then they have a hard time giving you a full answer! Its almost like people are evasive about it and there is a secret plot not to tell the foreigners what it is really about. Nah, I’m just messing with you, it is kind of a Buddhist festival where you can make repentance or wishes in exchange to offering a Kra-Tong to some religious icon of some kind to say thanks for the water which provided the crops that year. I, along with some of my friends went to a special event at Chulalongkorn University. It was a big affair with floats, dancing, music, food stalls etc all run by the students. We met some of our colleagues and students and bought a Kra-Tong, lit the incense, passed it around an made wishes before pushing it off into the water.... the water was an enclosed lake so there were many hundreds of Kra-Tongs all lit with candles, flowers and incense littering its shores. The irony here was that the Kra-Tong is meant to go on a river so it can go out to sea and thus reach its destination, well it is meant to engage with some freedom, well thats the kind of religious mystical kind of perspective I took, and yeah people agreed but its okay, its only symbolic – its just something you have to do and its a bit pretty and all festive so its kind of hearty. It is a bit of a mixture of Halloween, Fireworks night and the Harvest Festival. Its pretty funny, although there are elements which are unique, it didn’t seem a million miles away from they types of festivals which we have. But then again, what was I expecting?