Often referred to the festival of lights. The Yee Peng festival is the most mesmerising festival in northern Thailand. It occurs in the twelfth month of the lunar calendar and coincides with another festival celebrated by the rest of the country, called Loi Krathong.
While most of Thailand celebrates with floating lights on lakes and rivers, northern Thailand celebrates the Yee Peng festival by releasing these lanterns into the sky as they pray for their wishes to come true.
Thai people believe that if your lantern disappears from your sight before the fire goes out, your bad luck and misfortune floats away from you into the air. Sharing good fortune is also an important part of this festival as sometimes people place their money in the lantern and anyone who finds it (after it’s landed somewhere) can have that money from the sender. This is also the good trick from Thai people in the past to keep the land clean after this night because kids and villagers around the area will be enjoy searching and collecting lanterns after it’s landed.
Photo by: John Shedrick