The Disney movie, Tangled was based off of the Loy Krathong Festival in Chiang Mai. The movie was of Repunzel wanting to go see the floating lanterns. Well...this year, I got to be Repunzel and go see those magical floating lanterns for myself and it was beyond any other experience I have ever had.
When lighting off a lantern, there is a rule..you make a wish before you send it into the sky. It was a great experience to see all of these wishes being sent off into the sky. People from all over the world were in Chiang Mai just to experience the Lantern Festival.
Thai people celebrate the Loy Krathong Festival to give light to Buddha, to give worship to him, to give thanks to him. I love how devoted the people are to their beliefs here. They respect everyone for what they believe in.
Every morning at 4 am I am woken up from monks across the street of my school who sing, play drums, recite prayer and are up giving their praises and time to Buddha. After they are done with their morning ritual, they walk the streets and collect any offerings that people on the street have to give them. The offerings could be anything from food, to money, to animals. The people are just saying thank you for their devotion to their Buddha through their offerings. The people will then bow to the monks and pray to either them or Buddha (I am not quite sure which).
But it was quite awesome to experience first hand the lantern festival. It truly was so magical.
 |
| They have massive parades at night to celebrate the festival. |
Another awesome experience we had was to go see the Karen Hill Tribes up in the mountains of Chiang Mai. Women in the hill tribes start wearing rings around their necks, and legs at the age of 5, to extend them. If they remove the rings around the necks, their necks will snap because they have been supported for so long. We went and saw their village and how they live their lives up in on the mountain side. 
No comments:
Post a Comment