Bye Bye Sins

Claire & I are in Bangkok again and will be until the week before Christmas, I'm enjoying the chance to be back here again and as an added bonus take in a couple of national festivals that I missed last time.

The first was Loy Krathong festival, which was last night, the other is the King's birthday which is in a couple of weeks.

For Loy Krathong people gather to launch small banana-leaf, flower and candle/incense boats onto lakes and rivers, the boats are supposed to contain the individual's sins of the last year and after floating them down the river one can start afresh again (on a whole new set).

We launched our little boats and then enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere on a calm, relaxed evening.
We went to the main park in Bangkok and watch hundreds of families gather, pray and launch their boats in a loving manner. There were rich families and poor families, many who were obviously economic migrants to Bangkok from the poorer parts of Thailand. Also in attendance were young Thai students, and the occasional too cool for school crowd. I like the fact that these traditions are still alive for all people and don't attract the cynicism they would in Australia.

After a little time the lake had hundreds or thousands of candles floating upon it.