Loy Krathong

This will just be a short post, because words do not do this festival justice. I just experienced Loy Krathong two nights ago. Let me just say, wow. It's almost as if they combined the explosiveness of New Year's with the drunken debauchery of Halloween. The festival itself has very serene, peaceful origins. The Krathong, or small floaty thing as it is technically referred to, is meant to symbolize a person letting go of the bad parts of themselves - grudges, anger, past wrongdoings, etc. For all the Jews out there, a little like Tashlich, but instead of food, they make small rafts. For all you Catholics out there, a little like....well I think Catholics hang on to that for a while. Anyway, the origins are very peaceful, but the celebration consists of people getting very drunk and setting off large amounts of fireworks within a very close proximity of one another. I'm not just talking Roman Candles, either. I'm talking about blow-off-your-finger and lose-your-hearing fireworks. So there are fireworks going off literally all around you, people are releasing these krathongs, and they are also letting Khom Fai go into the air. Khom Fai are like miniature hot air ballons, and they have a similar purpose to the Krathongs. So the night sky is filled with fireworks and thousands of Khom Fai floating away, people are all around you setting off fireworks, sparklers, small clay explosives, and on and on. The pictures (which you can see here) are quite calm, but the experience is actually very loud and not calm. Still, all in all, a very worthwhile experience for anyone to see. Also, if you're interested in learning more about Loy Krathong, here is the link to its Wikipedia page.