Loy Kratong Weekend at Baan Unrak

'Loy Kratong' has come and gone again here in Thailand. The festival of lights and 'floating flowers' takes place every November, the night of the full moon, and is celebrated to show gratitude to the Goddess of the River. Small boats are fashioned from banana leaves and folded into beautiful shapes, then decorated with flowers, candles, incense and coins before released into the river streams. Before releasing the boats, one prays to the Goddess to remove sorrow and asks her to bring joy and happiness again this coming new year.

This time last year I was dodging smoke bombs and fire crackers on the back of a friend's motorbike, zipping in and out of tourist traffic along the canal roads of bustling, Chiang Mai city. I remember having to fight my way through crowds to get to the Ping river's waterfront...This year's Loy Kratong was a remarkably different experience, as I chose to spend it with a different kind of crowd; I celebrated with the kids at Baan Unrak in the small, quiet village we call HOME.

Our celebrations started well before the night of the full moon. On Wednesday night I suddenly had the urge to make a huge bonfire in the middle of the football field. I bought corn, bananas and taro from the local market while the boys prepared the wood collection; after evening meditation we made a big show of lighting the fire and had a king's feast of roasted goodies. The little kids were dutifully tucked into bed before midnight, but some of the older teens insisted on bringing out their mats and blankets to spend the night 'camping' under the stars. I tended the fire for them, pulled the blankets up tight round their chins and said my 'good-nights' despite their tired moans asking me to stay with them. I told them I was too old to be sleeping on the dirt floor in the freezing cold, and indeed I was looking forward to a quick shower, warm blankets and a comfy bed. I remember laughing at them as I walked away, imagining their bony bodies shivering throughout the night...

...I should have remembered to ask the guard to keep the gates unlocked...by 1 am I forfeited; confirmed that I was indeed locked out of the main house and forced to walk back, tail between my legs, and tuck in with the kids on the ground sharing a flimsy blanket between 6 of us! I didn't sleep a wink...I was kicked and nudged from every direction, sandwiched between a snorer and an enthusiastic farter, and helplessly watched the hours roll away on my cell phone. When dawn finally broke I was up and out of there, running for the doors just as the care mothers woke up to start their day's work!

The next day, tired and grumpy from lack of sleep was FUN. Some of the older girls asked if we could make the 'kratongs' together and I could hardly say no to that! So, we tucked onto a motorbike (3 teens + 1 farang) and went hunting for fresh banana tree stalks and leaves from a neighbor's garden, and decorations from the local market.

An hour later, this is the mess we made:

Here the kids start making 'kratong', cutting banana leaves and folding them into intricate designs like lotus flowers and cones decorated with flowers and ferns.

I feel sorry for whoever was left behind to clean this up!

Once our kratongs were completed we traveled to the main square for some entertainment. All weekend long the kids enjoyed local markets, music performances and carnival-like festivals in the village square, and everyone (myself included) stuffed their faces with limitless sweets.

Finally, late night came and it was time to release our boats into the lake. Here the kids release the kratong into the lake and pray for another good year to come.

Happy Loy Kratong, and I hope next year I will be lucky enough to find myself in another beautiful setting like this again. I'll be posting videos of some of the performances from the main square soon, stay tuned!