Loy Krathong
What is going on with Loy Krathong?
What are its true goals?
And
How can we make it better?
Article By
Kris Dhiradityakul
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Special Holidays allow working people to have not only a physical rest but also to fill up their souls with all kinds of emotional and spiritual desire.
So everyone from everywhere or every country is looking for a holiday. Yes, every country has a holiday based on their different traditional culture, politics, climate, geography, mode of production, and religion. Loy Krathong is coming next week. Are we ready to celebrate or are we ready to make it right?
It is all acknowledged that the Thais seem to have quite a lot of holidays throughout the year. I don’t think Thais have less official holiday than any other countries around the world. If we look at the calendar, apart from the normal western weekend, we also have official holidays in every month.
In some months, there are more than two official holidays of which have been either determined by Buddhist traditions, agricultural ceremony or political event. Regardless of all traditional background, we tend to ignore the traditional goals and true hidden functions of the ceremony.
Instead, we enjoy any holidays with such a big gathering of friends and relatives and with alcoholic drinks.
Quite a lot of time we found ourselves gone far beyond the boundary of fun and enjoyment. A long holiday of fun and entertainment can turn into the most catastrophic period leading to greatest loss of life and property.
Economically speaking, these long holidays cause the country to pay huge amount of money to treat the disabled, and lose a proportion of working power.
After the introduction of the western working ethics in the city, Thais seem to know when to take a break and when not to work. We tend to ‘WORK HARD.’ However, I am not quite sure if we really take it seriously when it comes to WORKING HARD.
ring the industrial age working ethics has been recently promoted. People were looking to possess more material wealth instead of enjoying life as it is. We have to possess more materials so that we can enjoy possessing and spending materials and presenting our dignity through the wealth we possess.
We tend to separate between WORKING and PLAYING. We must work hard to earn enough for play. The more we earn, the more we can play to enjoy the utmost part of the satisfaction gland. A concept “WORK HARD, PLAY HARD’ seems to be gradually implanted in Thai mentality.
It is not quite clear whether our working ethics have been well established and can easily be noticed as found in Japan or Korea but the Thais have all the sense of PLAYING HARD.
In this upcoming festival taking place on the full moon night, Thais are celebrating their Loy Krathong festival. This is time for fun and enjoyment with friends. This is time for respecting nature and oneself. However, it is important to ensure that this Loy Krathong will not cause much loss and damages. The festival should be safe and entertaining.
According to many legends, there are various interpretation, origins and history of Loy Krathong. Some said Loy Krathong is held to seek pardon from the Ganges River in India. The people felt that they have released unclean things into the river and this is the time to seek pardon from the nature mother. Some said Loy Krathong is the time to pay homage to Buddha at the riverside.
The story was drawn from the time when he crossed the river and shaved his head to renounce himself from the world. The Loy Krathong was actually designed to dedicate to the Buddha Footprint after he set foot by the riverside. All in all, Loy Krathong is either related to the tribute paid to Buddhism or homage paid to mother natures or agriculture.
Loy Krathong in Thailand dated back from over seven hundred years from the early period of Sukhothai. Originally Nang Noppamas, one of the King Phra Ruang’s royal concubines designed this lotus shaped krathong to dedicate to the Buddha to be used in the festival on the full moon night.
Clearly speaking, Loy Krathong is more or less generated from Buddhist tradition while the practice of Loy Krathong binds people to live in harmony with the mother’s nature and to save their resources for the sustainable use.
Looking in all aspects of the practices and objectives of Loy Krathong, I see no chance of any negative problems caused by this particular festival. The festival seems to be good for all.
However, there are more automobile accidents, more road rage, more domestic violence ie, street-fight, more patients in hospital, and more gasoline used, more pollution, and more and more problems during the festival.
Why is that?
Is it time for us
to go back to our original goals?
Is it time for us
to pay respect to nature as it is,
Is it time for us
to pay tribute to our ancestors,
it is time for us
to really fill the thirst of our souls.
Kris Dhiradityakul
The Observer
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