Thanksgiving in Thailand
- hkitchstewart
- Jun 25, 2019
- 2 min read
Thailand doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, pretty much none of the world does except us Americans. Something to do with the lack of pilgrims and native Americas.... Also, I haven't seen a single turkey in this country.
Coincidentally, on the same day as Thanksgiving, Thailand has a light festival called Loy Krathong, Loy Krathong translates "to float in a basket". Its a night time celebration, where you can float a basket. Within your basket, incense in burned and a candle is lit. You are suppose to put apart of yourself into the basket, I saw a few people put finger nail clippings or pieces of hair in their baskets. Its symbolic way of releasing all of your worries, into the water.
The creating of the baskets is where the fun lies. At Thida, hundred of kids were scattered around the floor creating their baskets. Some baskets were very intricate. They used natural materials like banana leaves and flowers to decorate a piece of floating banana wood. It's important that all materials used are environmentally friendly. Some of the shops, selling the baskets were creative. I ended up purchasing a basket that was made of fish food. I went to both Hat Yai park and the Hat Yai University PSU to take photos and take part of the ceremony, it was beautiful.
As i've mentioned before, I have become close with several of the Serbians in Hat Yai. For Loy Krathong about six of us drove around on our scooters, which for some reason was hilarious to me. Almost like a motorcycle gang, however we were all packed on our tiny scooters.
I saw photos of the Loy Krathong festival prior to coming to Thailand. Many of the northern parts of Thailand (Chiang Mai) have massive flying lanterns, that allow for epic photography. Check out this website for more on the Northern Thailand flying lanterns. https://www.chiangmaitraveller.com/2018-loy-krathong-yee-peng-lantern-festivals-chiang-mai-thailand/
Let the Christmas festivities begin! The 1st and 2nd graders have already started rehearsing our holiday songs. I have been asked to come up with a choreographed dance. Insert wide eyes. I am trying to keep the jazz hands down to a minimum.
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