The Thai festival of Loi Krathong is celebrated on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar -- this year, on the evening of November 28th (which is when this is being written). "Loi" means "to float" and "krathong" refers to a container (usually lotus-shaped) that floats on water. A krathong is usually decorated with elaborately folded banana leaves, flowers, an incense stick, and a candle. On the night of the full moon, Thais launch their krathong on a river, canal, or pond, making a wish as they do.
Some of the students at our school made their krathong today.
Tom, an elementary class teacher, made a beautiful krathong for us.
In Khemmarat, the festival focuses on the Mekong River, naturally enough. The evening was off to a beautiful start.
Folks began descending a long set of stairs to the river to launch their krathong. They also began launching floating lanterns, another part of the celebration.
The rainy season in Thailand is from June through October, and we have seen very little rain since we arrived in Thailand at the end of September, but that changed at about 6 pm tonight.
But the show went on (although with a diminished audience).
We made a new friend tonight, a man born in Thailand who was educated in the US and returned to Thailand to marry his bride. He is a naturalized US citizen, lives very close to us, and was delighted to make some English-speaking friends. We waited quite awhile for the rain to stop but finally accepted his very kind offer of a ride home. After we got home, we saw some floating lanterns launched in our own "front yard."
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