The Loy Krathong Festival was started approximately 700 years ago during the Sukothai period. It marked the end of the rainy season and the beginning of a dry period.
The festival gives thanks to the Goddess of Water – Phra Mae Khongkha for having blessed them with enough water to cultivate their fields.
The Krathong is usually made from a slice of coconut stump that is decorated with banana leaves and a candle placed on top.
The Krathong is lit and then placed into water, pushed and then watched whilst it drifts away. Many people will add something to make a request from the Goddess – putting a fingernail or small change on the krathong does this.
The second most common tradition is that of Miss Nopamas but the origins of this are not as clear. But what we know is that during one year of celebrating Loy Krathong a beautiful woman called Nopamas made a Krathong from banana leaves and shaped them like a lotus flower.
The King was so taken by the beauty of the woman and the Krathong that he declared that the making of the Krathongs would continue but there would also be a beauty contest.
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