Loi Khratong
Loi Khratong is one of the two biggest events of the year. The other celebration is called Songkran and is the Thai New Year. Any excuse to party suits the people of Thailand.
Loi Khratong happens for three days around the full moon of the 12th lunar month. No one is certain when it started or why. However, there is a story that a beautiful princess, in the old capitol of Sukathoi, who pleased the king by floating on the river, a small, flower boat with a lighted candle. Whatever the origin, it is a delightful event.
Each night on the waterways around Thailand thousands of Loi Khratong boats gently float, their candles making a slow moving stream of light. The small boats are made of banana leaves that hold flower arrangements surrounding a candle. Incense is added and a coin is placed on the craft. Some say bad luck floats away with the Khratong. Others say it is to appease the Gods of the water, thanking them for the harvest and ask for an end to the rain.
In addition to the floating lights there are thousands of large paper bags that fill the sky. The bags are about five-feet long and a foot in diameter. In the open end there is a wire attachment for a fire source. The lit fire fills the bag with hot air and it rises into the night sky. Back on the ground everyone is participating with firecrackers and bottle rockets. Part of the fun seems to be trying to scare foreigners. There is a constant din of explosions. Periodically professional fireworks shoot into the night sky from one of the river barges.
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last night we had program about Loi Khratong, the administration requested us [foreign teachers] to sing their hymn 
it was fun indeed, though we didn’t reach d pitch hehehehehe
watch out for our pics
