Tufts Blogs

Loy Krathong is one of the many important holidays in Thailand, and for the Civic Semester students, it's a moment for us to truly immerse ourselves in Thai culture. Loy Krathong occurs on the evening of the full moon of the twelfth month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. The purpose of the holiday is to give thanks to the water goddess Khongkha. On the morning of Loy Krathong, all of our host families dressed us in traditional clothing to go to the temple. It is customary for women to wear white shirts with traditional northern Thai skirts. We were fortunate to be placed at the very front of the procession to the temple. As we walked to the temple, elders from the village threw marigold petals on us for good luck. After the temple, we all ate lunch and then headed back to the homestays to make krathongs for after dinner. For the krathongs, we used bamboo as the base because they need to float, and then we decorated them with banana leaves, which could be folded into different shapes and patterns, and also pinned flowers to the base. The purpose of the krathongs is to release misfortune and serve as an offering to the water goddess.

At around 6 PM, we all hopped into vans and headed to the reservoir. Our host families had prepared dinner for us to eat at the reservoir. After dinner, our instructors bought us sparklers, which is a traditional activity. Following the sparklers, we watched thousands of lanterns fill the sky. Then we hopped back into the van and headed to an area where we could place our krathongs in the water. It started to rain when we arrived at the river, but we were all determined to offer our krathongs. I made a krathong for my host mom so that both of us could place them in the water together. We lit the candles in the krathongs, and my host mom placed her krathong in the water first, followed by mine. It was such an incredible moment for me to be so immersed in the culture with my host mom and to understand such an important holiday in Thailand.