Yi Peng – The Floating Lantern Festival takes place in northern Thailand every year around November. It’s celebrated at the time of Loy Kathrong where people send floating lanterns down the river in little boats. This all takes place at the first full moon of the 12th lunar month.
Hundreds of glowing sky lanterns are launched into the night sky like little hot air balloons. The celebration is meant to bring good luck. Symbolically, it’s like sending your worries and problems floating away with the lanterns. You can watch the video below to see how magical the floating lanterns are…
People also decorate their houses with intricately shaped paper lanterns for Yi Peng.
Interestingly, these lanterns are thought to have been invented in China at the turn of the 3rd century and were used as military beacons. Then later they become popular for other uses like festivals.
This article was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 10:15 am and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Holidays Around the World, Lantern Festival, Loy Krathong (Floating Lanterns) Festival in Thailand, Mama Lisa, Thailand, Yi Peng, YouTube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
2 Responses to “The Magical Floating Lantern Festival in Thailand”
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April 2nd, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Purabi wrote from Bangladesh:
“We have the same festival in the ‘Chittagong Hill Tracts’ [CHT] of Bangladesh, where I come from. CHT is situated in the South-eastern part of Bangladesh. It’s a hilly region unlike most parts of Bangladesh. About 12/13 ethnic minority groups live in the CHT, most of them are Buddhist by religion.
Paper lantern launching is a Buddhist religious festival. It takes place in July on a full moon night. People gather at the temple and launch the lanterns. The lanterns symbolize ‘enlightenment’ which we all should head for by doing good actions. The occasion on which lanterns are launched is called ‘Prabarana Purnima’. Lanterns are called ‘Fanush’ in Bengali.
Hope to write more about CHT and the Chakma (the name of the ethnic group which I belong to).”
Thanks for sharing that Purabi. We’d love to learn more about CHT and the Chakma!
March 18th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
This looks phenomenal. I would love to go. Do you have any info on tourists or traveling at this time?