Loy Kratong: Fireworks in the House? No Problem
This is part of our Window on Southeast Asia series.
I have to admit that I'm a hopeless, dyed-in-the-wool Christmas romantic. I don't really care how they mess up Christmas with all the commercialization, I still love it. I wonder if it could ever be the same for anyone from another part of the world? It's childhood memories that make it what it is. Starting from the first December of my life, all the sights, sounds and smells were different from what I had experienced the rest of the year, and they would come back like clockwork each December. For Thai people, the same thing happens in October or November.
My favorite Thai holiday was Loy Kratong, which came at the full moon in November (or rarely on the last day or two of October.) The origins are somewhat mysterious. The first records of the holiday come from the Sukhotai era (c. 1230 - 1350). Most historians seem to think it evolved from Hindu celebrations on the Ganges, the holy river of Hinduism. Whatever its origins, it is performed today to thank the spirit (some say "Goddess") of the river and to apologize to it for using the river to wash, clean dishes in, etc. The kratong is central to the Loy Kratong celebration. It's a flower boat made by attaching flowers, banana leaves shaped like flower petals, incense, and candles to a round cross section of banana trunk. On Loy Kratong night Thais light their candles and incense and float them on the river. They add coins, one if you're either married or happily single, two if you want to get married soon. That's 2 baht to get married, a little more than 2 cents. Not bad.
Fireworks are a much loved part of the celebrations, so much so that I almost swam back to America. The entertainment value of firecrackers never seems to wear off on the Thais during Loy Kratong. The day after Loy Kratong several of us went to a coworker's house. Her kids had some very small firecrackers that they actually set off in the house. To my amazement, their mother and father didn't seem to mind. Asians sometimes have a reputation in America for being strict with their children, but as time went on I started to wonder.
Preparations for Loy Kratong begin well before the actual day. By the time I arrived in Lampang for my new job there, northern style lanterns, with their overall round shape but flat, square sides and gold foil decoration in the middle of each square, were popping up everywhere. Long, thin, shiny banners, typical of northern culture, were fluttering from the temples, lamp-posts, and some shop houses. They are usually green, red, pink, blue, or yellow. They have borders of foil the same color and are decorated with gold flower motifs. The crack of fireworks became more frequent as Loy Kratong approached, as did ambulance sirens.
Kratongs for Sale by the Road
Loy Kratong is mostly celebrated at night. That evening I walked out the door to meet a couple of coworkers just after sundown. I don't think I had completed even two steps outside my apartment before being struck by that "Toto, we're not in Kansas any more" feeling. Across the street the houses were lined with dozens of candles. Every house had at least a few dozen. Looking up I could see that the sky was on fire. Loy Kratong is a day for closet pyromaniacs to go crazy. One of the things that pyromaniac Thais love to do at Loy Kratong is to launch mini-hot air balloons into the air. These are 3-foot high plastic bags with a metal frame at the bottom and a can of something flammable. Once lit, the balloon rises into the air slowly and hovers only a few hundred feet in the air. Some crash down prematurely, their fires still blazing. Hundreds of these floating lanterns were in the sky just then, like a swarm of fireflies on steroids.
Loy Kratong Floating Lantern
By the time I reached the bridge over the river people were already putting their kratongs in the water. The river was sparkling with the candles in the kratongs and tiki torches all along the riverbank. As I walked down the river I stopped to watch families, couples, and groups of friends launching their kratongs into the river. They would hold the kratong up to their forehead, say a prayer, then put the kratong onto the river.
Prayers at the River
I met my coworkers at the Riverside restaurant, and we sat by the river watching a boat parade. The boats were incredibly colorful, some had bright green dragons, huge lotus flowers with beauty queens seated in the middle, miniature floating temples and shrines, elephants, lions and various creatures from Thai folklore.
Boat Parade During Loy Kratong
After we finished dinner the others were content to stay at the table, but I couldn't wait to go exploring so I said goodbye and headed for my friend Sony's house. By this time the river side and the roads were packed like sardines with people. The smells changed every few seconds, ranging from incense smoke to exhaust fumes, from firecracker smoke to food cooking.
Lady with Northern Thai Lantern During Loy Kratong
I met Sony, her mother, and sister on the way to her house, and we went to a temple that I hadn't been to before. This one had a shrine with a huge stone slab and a gigantic footprint of the Buddha, so they believe. From the temple we crossed a bridge over the river, which was completely clogged with kratongs. Now a river of water and fire, it was magical just to stand and stare at, though the firecrackers somehow spoiled the mood. The other side of the river was just as crowded, every family in Lampang seemed to have its plot of land carved out along the river bank.
At the river I watched the family praying, letting their kratongs go and splashing water toward them to get them further into the river. Once Sony let hers go it was my turn. Sony had to go home early, so I went for a walk along the river.
At the edge of town there was a man-made waterfall where most of the kratongs met their fate. It was pretty strange (and a bit sad) to watch the kratongs crash over the waterfall. Just downstream I could see that people were launching kratongs where the water became calm again. There man and nature conspired to make a hypnotizing sight: the jungle was bathed in the light of the full moon as the kratongs on the river made a ribbon of flickering light that wound into darkness. The hypnotic moment lasted only until the next firecracker went off. There were quite a few young couples floating their kratongs together, perhaps because it was darker there.
Eventually I pulled myself away and went home to rest my firecracker-oppressed ears. Lying in bed I waited a few minutes before putting my earplugs in. I could hear the sound of fireworks, children playing, fireworks, people laughing, fireworks, cheers as the boats went down by the river, fireworks, the 1343rd playing of the one and only Loy Kratong song, fireworks, etc. I remembered lying in bed on Christmas Eve and bouncing out of it Christmas day. I thought of the sounds of bells, Santa "Ho-ho-hoing," Christmas music, everyone meeting outside church on Christmas night lighting candles and singing, and many other sounds. To me, the sights, sounds and smells of Loy Kratong were so exotic, so beautiful, so inspiring. But as I lay there I knew they could never be the same for me as they were for Thai people who had it imprinted into their identity.
I remember watching West African dancers at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. After the drumming, a costumed and masked dancer wearing stilts would come out and dance. It's a common yearly ceremony in parts of Ivory Coast, Guinea and Liberia. I wonder what memories it must evoke in West African people every year. As young children they would lie in their parent's arms, watching this huge apparition flicker in the firelight, being assured that it's a good spirit. Christmas has become so commercialized that we often talk of "Holiday magic" transcending the commercialization, that being the feelings imprinted upon us in our early years and reinforced year after year. The magic of any holiday, shared only by those who are part of the society in which it is celebrated and unknown to all else, may well be the greatest of cultural treasures.
