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| full moon festival |
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| There are two major festivals in Thailand every year; one in April and one in November. Without any preplanning, our timing was in perfect coordination with Thailand's November celebration, and as luck would have it, Chiang Mai serves as the country's largest host for this particular occasion. Known as Loy Krathong (a full moon festival that actually lasts four days), it is a celebration to say goodbye to the rainy season and give thanks to the Gods for continued prosperity in the year to come. |
| 2002-2003 |
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| We spent one evening watching the festival fantasia from a roof top bar where they lit their own krathong for personal luck, only to see it come crashing down on the building next to it where it almost caught the builiding on fire. We were left wondering what that would mean for their future luck. |
| Parades ran for four nights straight (after three we couldn't take another), fireworks were everywhere (I definitely induldged in this activity), and handmade lanterns called "krathongs" were released into the sky by the thousands. Elaborately decorated floats of flowers and palm leaves lit with candles and sparklers were sent down the river as a symbol for "floating away" the year's bad luck and sins and a request for renewed luck and good fortune. |