The Thai holiday of Loy Kratong is easily one of the more
beautiful festivals I have had the blessing to attend. It is simple, graceful,
and surreal. While I haven’t had the opportunity to be present for the bigger,
mass ascension-style celebrations that take place elsewhere in Thailand, I am overjoyed
to have had the chance to be back in the country for a second go at Chiang
Rai’s festivities.
As I have mentioned before, Loy Kratong is an amalgamation
of exquisite traditions for cleansing oneself, spiritually and mentally, for the upcoming
year. Beneath a heavy moon, banana leaf and bread kratongs are sent floating
downriver, as kohm lanterns lift away from fingers into a sky thick with false
constellations. If it weren’t for the fireworks going off left and right, it
would be serene, as though time were suspended, slowed.
This year, through a series of small-world occurrences involving five
hot air balloon pilots, a common interest in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my
willingness to give out my phone number to strangers, our Loy Kratong weekend festivities were taken up a notch on the beauty scale.
Neither Win nor I had been in a hot air balloon before, despite our hometown being annual host to the largest
balloon festival on Earth. But, thanks to some glorious strangers and the Thai propensity for
ridiculous fairs, all that changed.
The heat of the burner glows hot against your skin, contrasting sharply with the comparatively crisp night air. Beneath the balloon, so much larger than and hotter than
anticipated, with the world drifting away from the soles of your shoes, one
feels an experience of ethereal lightness. It is lightness abrupt,
overwhelming. It is almost as though, if not for the tethers anchoring the basket to the ground, one might float off entirely.
It was an experience augmenting an already magical holiday
weekend. Fitting perfectly in among the floating, drifting, lifting, it was as
though life chose, for this one brief moment, to have a theme, to lace a common
thread into various events. Perfect, ephemeral, light; I didn’t think I could
enjoy Loy Kratong more than I had in past years.
