Happy Thanksgiving Happy Loy Krathong

Spending Thanksgiving in Thailand has been .... different. I miss cooking for family and friends. The ease of finding just what you need in the states is taken for granted. 

We celebrated Loy Krathong, which takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the Western calendar this usually falls in November. This year it fell on Thanksgiving.

Here are some pics of Loy Krathong and Thanksgiving. 

These are Banana trunk disks. They float on the water and carry the decorations. 

The krathongs are decorated by using fresh flowers.

The banana leaves are used to cover the banana
disks. Straight pins are used to secure the flowers
and 3 incense sticks as well as a candle are pare
of the decoration.

Here are some of our boarding students.
The young man on the right, Kaizen, never
wants me to hug him. I'm not sure why?

This is Ian, pronounced Yan, and he is one of only
3 blonde children at our school. He is Russian.

These girls are all Thai. They are dressed in
traditional Thai costumes. 

Some 4th grade girls who will be dancing
in the program today. Aren't they the cutest!

Here they are dancing a traditional Thai

dance.

Finished krathongs.

The high school girls after their dance
being silly ... what they do best.

Each class makes a krathong and the winner
is given an award. This was the 12th grades
entry.

7th Graders entry. Tonight they take their
krathongs and place them in the stream.
The purpose is to ask forgiveness and get good
luck. I made one but didn't float it, it was too
pretty! ;)

Here is the winner - 11th graders. 

In the evening after floating the krathongs.
These lanterns are sent up to represent something
... what, I'm not sure but it's part of the ceremony. 

Of course, you can't miss an important
text while lifting lanterns! 

These lanterns are made out of thin paper, almost like crepe paper. The unique part is the way they get these to rise. They take a roll of toilet paper, soak it in gas and was mixture. It's then solidified and cut into disks. These sit in the center of a wire case and are ignited. Once the lantern is filled with black smoke you let go and it floats away.