A Candlelit Holiday by Elaine Masters
On one full-moon night every fall, the rivers and lakes of Thailand are dotted with twinkling candles. The Thais are celebrating "Loi Krathong," or "Floating Leaf Cup Day."
No one knows for sure how this lovely custom got started. Some say it was started 700 years ago by a wife of a kind who wanted to surprise and please her husband. Others say it started even longer ago as a special religious ceremony. But however it began, it is delightful.
Families always used to make their floats, or little boats, from banana leaves torn into strips and woven into the shape of a bowl. Then they beautifully decorated them with flowers. Now, while many families still make their own floats, others simply buy them. Modern floats may be made of banana leaves or plastic. All of them still hold a lighted candle, a flower, a stick or two of sweet-smelling incense, and a coin.
On the holiday evening, families gather at parks near lakes, rivers, or canals for outdoor dinners. Adults sit on mats and visit with their neighbors while children play tag or hide-in-seek. In some cities, blazing fireworks and dancers in shining silk costumes entertain the crowd.
Many men and women sell things. People sell floats to those who have not made them at home. Other people sell balloons in various shapes and colors or clever toys made of bamboo. Food sellers offer noodle soup, dried fish, candy, little cakes, roasted chicken, and bamboo tubes filled with sticky rice cooked in coconut milk. They pour soft drinks into small plastic bags, whirl a rubber band around the top, and stick in a short straw.
Then, when the full moon rises, families light the candles and set their little boats afloat. The waterway soon twinkles like a fairyland with candles bobbing in their floats and fireworks reflecting in the water.
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