Loy Krathong (Thailand)

Kung told us about Loy Krathong, a Thai festival that is celebrated in November. For Loy Krathong, people build a krathong - a floating flower display with a candle and joss sticks, which then gets to float away, taking all worries and bad luck with it.

Toby loves anything crafty, and with the nights getting longer, the idea of playing with light sounded lovely, too, so we decided to build our own krathong. Traditionally, the base is made from a slice of a banana tree or bread - we decided to use some flower "oasis" (squishy green stuff for flower arrangements), wrapped in cling film. The base gets covered in banana leaf, and then flowers get arranged on top. Ours is not as professional as those we found online, but we had great fun making it. Toby wanted to include some autumn leaves, so we had a whole row of them. Because it is very windy right now here where we live, we decided to put some giant sparklers on, rather than a candle, which would have lasted about half a second.

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Kung shared this video with us, which explains how to make a krathong, and also tells you more about the festival and various meanings.

Because our krathong had cling film and pins in it, we did take it back out of the water and took it home with us - maybe it floated long enough to give us a bit of good luck :) Thank you to Kung and her brother Ukrit, and...

Happy Loy Krathong!!!