Loy Krathong - Thai festival from the future
Few days ago we jumped into a plane in Warsaw, and during flight to Thailand we time traveled to year 2561! No, we did not overuse Thai rum, neither we watched too much sci-fi movies, here lunar calendar is used and years are counted from time when Buddha reached final Nirvana. Full moon cycle last approximately 28 days, so Thai Months are a little bit shorter, there are between 12 - 13 in year, and years have 354, 355 or 384 days. Loy Krathongis picturesque festival running every year on the end of rainy season. It takes place on full moon during twelve month of Thai lunar calendar. As Thai years don't have same amounts of days - exact date of festival change every year, so if you are planing to see it - check before when it takes place. Don't worry that after making hotel reservation Thais will tell that your reservation was already in the past. On a daily business they use Gregorian calendar moved by 543 years and lunar calendar is just to set dates for individual Buddhist festival (btw it must be very annoying to use two calendars). This time we managed to seeLoy Krathong on 23rd of November (it has started on 20th in Chiang Mai). Last year we were lucky to see it between 2nd do 4th November in Bangkok andAyutthaya - in both cases we realized about festival after buying plane tickets.
Name of the holiday means "to float a basket". These are small "boats", traditionally made from banana tree trunk, where top is made from banana tree leaves formed in many different shapes and colorful flowers. Each basket has small candles and incenses lightened before releasing them onto water. In Ayutthaya most of boats were made from corn crisps - very ecological, as they were immediately eaten by huge catfishes in river Menam. If basket float away from its owner, it means prosperity in next year, if it comes back to shore - owners worries will come back (thats why some Thais were jumping into the river to push baskets that stopped at the bank of the river). In some cities on north besides boats, lanterns are being released. Holiday is named "Yi Peng" which translates to "second" and "day of full moon", which means full moon during second month of local lunar calendar Lanna (old kingdom that was located on territory of north of modern Thailand). Both festivals are supposed to free people from bad things like: hatred, unhappiness, bad luck and anger. They were started in India and adapted by King Rama IV as as a celebration to honor the Buddha. Holidays are celebrated very pompously, the way is a bit different, depending on the place. We watched them in three cities:Ayutthaya
In many points in city next to temples on river banks there were markets with huge variety of Krathongs (baskets), and also with different types of food. It was possible to walk between them and look how locals are celebrating this day. Everybody could take part in it by floating a basket on the river - prices are very different - starting from 30 Bahts (less than 1 EUR). We stood with a slight embarrassment with ourKrathong next to the river - should we light the candles? Happily just after few moment adorable policewoman show up, helped us with thelighter and gave us special "spoon" for placing basket to the water. Basket drifted away and and she explained us that we will be lucky, at the end she asked to take a picture of herself and Karolina. 
Bangkok
We were late for main part of the festival- but city has extended celebration. We had luck to be there for:Loy Krathong River Festival. It's annual event that the goal is to show visitors Thai culture. Nine places next to the river are taking part in it (e.g. some beautiful temples), and between them there are free river ferries - a real treat for tourists! During the festival in the evening (17-22) you can visit completely for free: - Wat Pho - Wat Arun - Wat Kalayanamitr - Wat Prayoon - Asiatique The Riverfront - ICONSIAM - Tha Maharaj - Yodpiman River Walk - Lhong1919ła 
Free ferry route during the Loy Krathong River Festival 
Chiang Mai
We arrived on the last day of festival, without precise plan. We wanted to take part in Yee Peng, but internet was full with advertisements of trips for mass lantern launching with prices between 4000 - 8000 (100-200 EUR) per person. All of them were far away from city due to safety reasons. -Wait?! Can typical Thai afford to pay 100 euro to take part in the ceremony of releasing lanterns?! - It sounded very touristic and artificial, something we wanted to avoid. So we left our hotel around 19:00 and it turned out that we arrived just before the parade that began at the walls of the historical city center! The start of the parade took place near the gate of Pratu Chiang Mai. 
