Holiday Schedule: Thailand Edition

I've been kicking my butt for weeks now to try and get these blog entries out and I think I'm finally able to sit down and do it. So here I sit in a British-themed cafe, sipping on my iced cafe mocha (only my third caffeine-related purchase since I've moved here), and listening to Christmas music (something I'm sure many of you have been doing for weeks, but this is a rare find in Thailand). It's one of the many cafes in Chiang Mai and specifically on my street alone, which is comprised mainly of bars, cafes, clubs, and an occasional haircut place (side note, this makes it sound like I live in some crazy youngsters village, but really Jules and I just happened to find a great deal in a little apartment tucked away from this main huge road that we soon found out is apparently THE place to be). I've also admittedly had terrible writer's block and haven't been able to easily put into words how amazing our adventures have been, but it seems like I'm doing better now. Nothing a mocha can't fix. So here goes!


It took a bit to figure all of this out, so I'm saving you the extensive research, word of mouth, and confusion we put together to bring to you, Holiday Schedule: Thailand Edition.

Yi (or Yee) Ping is a celebration that happens on the full moon of the second month of the old northern Lanna kingdom calendar. Loi Krathong is a celebration that happens on the full moon of the twelfth month of the Thai Lunar Calendar. This means they both end up happening around the same time every year and as a result, many people think the two holidays are the same thing with different names. Yes, they both involve lots of lights and lanterns. They both have celebrations and parades. They both attract enormous crowds of people. But they are definitely two separate holidays.

For starters, Yi Ping is a Lanna tradition that pays homage to Lord Buddha. As a Buddhist celebration, there was a lot--and I mean A LOT--of chanting/prayers/meditation. It went on for hours. It's interesting how most accounts of the event only talk about the lantern release, which doesn't happen until the very end of the event and actually doesn't last very long. It is, by far, the most interesting part of the ceremony, and the only part everybody's there for. One of the biggest places to celebrate Yi Ping is at Maejo University, which is about an hour outside of town. They have a Thai version of events and a Foreign version, which they only recently instituted, I imagine to bring in money, as I've heard it's 100 baht for a ticket to get in, while the Thai version is free (which is RIDICULOUS. That's like charging you $30 to go see Santa when you can just see him for free at your local mall). So we hopped on our handy-dandy motorbike and scooted out to the crowds of sweaty people trying to find a spot on the lawn where they can launch their lantern (which is also referred to as a balloon, or my favorite, fire-balloon). We arrived their fairly early and were pretty exhausted by the time we actually got to release our lantern, but it's absolutely worth it (at least once in your life, probably never again).

The releasing of your lantern into the air is supposed to represent releasing your fears and troubles and worries of the past year. It's about renewal and rebirth (which I'm sure you could have figured out on your own given that it's a Buddhist holiday). The pictures will help explain this better, but the lantern is basically this giant light paper bag thing with a wooden circle on the bottom and a little circle in the middle that is made of some sort of wax. You hold the lantern over a lighter or candle and let it fill up with hot air as the little wax circle ignites. Once it has filled completely (like a hot air balloon), you release it! And it floats away amongst the dozens or hundreds or thousands of others, depending on where you are. The moment when you actually let it go is hard to describe. It's probably so--for lack of a better word--magical because it's oh so fleeting. You patiently wait for the lantern to fill, hoping you don't set fire to the surrounding paper, it slowly tugs upward as if it has come to life, and when you're done taking pictures and laughing (and really, when you're ready to let go), you hold it above your head and you release it. And in that instant, you are filled with this joy that is as if you were the balloon itself, flying away. It's a funny and somewhat unexpected feeling because normally with events that hold symbolism, we always feel like we have to keep reminding ourselves what the thing represents. Like all the stuff with graduation; pulling your tassel to the other side, or "walking" at all. I feel like we always have to imbue these physical events with their spiritual representation. But every once in a while, the spiritual representation takes over and we don't have to think, we just feel. The moments in graduating when I felt like I made it and that I was taking the next step in my life didn't happen on the stage, hearing my name called, or moving the tassel. They happened when I was hugging all of my friends, or eating my celebratory lunch with my parents. So if you get what I'm trying to say, the lantern release is so amazing partly because letting go of your lantern is just one of those moments where the feelings take over before you have to think about how significant it's all supposed to be. It's freeing. And uplifting. (I'm sure I'm doing tons of blabbering in this blog, but I guess I have a lot to say since It's been so long!)

So after we released a few lanterns and took pictures and made our way through the crowd back to our motorbike, it started POURING RAIN. Serious thunderstorm status. Lightning, thunder, and literally sideways raindrops just catapulting towards us. Everybody starts yelling and running to get to their rides. We have one poncho leftover from the guy who sold us the scooter, so we decide Julia should wear it, with all the valuables (particularly her SLR camera) underneath. After a quick warning about how careful I should be from Julia-dearest, we made our way through puddles (puddles that seemed like lakes) and rain (rain that felt like tiny rocks) to drive the hour back home. I was freezing to the bone, just trying to keep myself from shaking so that I could control the bike. And I couldn't put my helmet visor down because it would just get splattered with rain, so I had to drive with my head at this weird downward angle so that I could still see. After about 10 minutes of this, we got to a main road where there were bits of shelter here and there so I immediately stopped and Jules and hid under a small awning with a group of others while we waited for the rain to die down. We eventually made our way home safe and sound, though that was an experience for the books. Oh and also, when we got to Yi Ping, we didn't know we couldn't wear shorts, so we had to buy some cheapo black pants that we could wear there. Needless to say, when we peeled them off back in our apartment, our legs and shorts underneath had been dyed black. But as Jules said, there's a certain kind of beauty in being wet and giving up on trying to be dry.

Loi Krathong (pronounced Loi as in "boy" and Kra-tong as in "song") roughly translates to floating float...basically. But the "float" or "krathong" is a vessel typically made of banana leaves that contains flowers, candles, and incense. Traditionally, people take these to their nearest rivers and release them in the water. Like Yi Ping, it represents letting go and starting anew, though the origins of this holiday are a little more murky (I think the article I linked does a great job of explaining it). Vendors make and sell krathongs for people near the waters, some of them made of foods like breads. For the most part, I think they try to make everything natural and biodegradable since they're releasing thousands of them into the river. Ironically, I've also heard releasing them into the water is supposed to thank the river for providing for us during the past year. We thank the river by throwing a bunch of shit into it at the end of the year (including the thousands of fireworks that people set off).

For some reason, even though schools consider this to be one of the biggest holidays of the year, they still have school on these days, but nobody does anything but prepare. It's like the last day of school: everyone has to be there, but really it's all about celebration. So because I was there but not teaching, I got to set off fireworks with the kids (it's too bad America's a first world nation because setting off huge fireworks with kids is actually quite fun. Yes, the kind of fun where I'm like, "They're letting 7-year-olds do this?? Is that okay?!" but fun nonetheless), and make my own krathong! I took pictures of the process of making a krathong so you can see :). In addition to krathongs, more fire balloons, and fireworks and sparklers of all kinds, they have parades, giant floats, and a Mr. and Ms. Loi Krathong beauty pageant.

Loi Krathong happens over three days (27th-29th) and they have a parade in each city for each day. Lamphun's parade happens on the first day, and since the school we teach at in the morning is a private school, they participate in the parade. Put two and two together and you guessed it, Jules and I were thus invited to expected to be in the parade as well. They told us about it a month in advance (which is amazing by any standard, but especially by Thai standards) and took us to buy our own traditional Thai outfits for the event. We even stayed in Lamphun overnight (in the owner of the schools' house, which is on the school grounds). After our usual day of teaching, we dressed up, got our hair and makeup done, and made our way to the parade. It was quite fun--and really weird--to see some of the older students all dressed and make-upped themselves. With make-up on, some of the older kids looked to be about our age, if not older! The only thing that gave them away was the way they carried themselves, otherwise at one point Jules thought one of the students I teach was a teacher themselves.

So here we are, taking pictures, ready to walk, and it starts raining. We hurriedly get under some umbrellas and as it worsens, we find some nearby shelter. A half hour or so passes and we figure out that they've pretty much given up on the parade and parents are taking their kids home. So that was our parade marching experience in Lamphun. It's pretty hilarious when you think about it, and calls to mind a literal "don't rain on my parade" and how accurate that token phrase is. Nevertheless, we got to watch the Chiang Mai parade the following day and saw a few white people that let us know how we'd probably look had we walked in Lamphun's parade. The parade mostly consists of people on cheesy floats dressed as what we believe to be the water gods. Most of them look not all that happy or painfully fake smiling. Some floats were really beautiful and some costumes were fun to see, but for the most part, a bunch of unhappy dressed up people.

(I'd just like to take a moment to talk about how the cafe I'm in is currently playing this song. So when I say it's playing Christmas music, take that loosely.)

I think that pretty much sums up our Thailand November Holiday Experience! We'll get some pictures up that definitely won't do the events justice, but will provide a glimpse of how beautiful and charming and wonderful it all was. :)