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Respect or Disrespect to the nature. |
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Loi Krathong (floating flower basket) ceremony, the most popular and beautiful festival in Thailand is on the full moon night of every year. In 2014, Loi Kratong day will be held on November 6th. The true intention of this day is to worship the god of water and show her that we are sorry for polluting water for years. We invent "kratong" (a little floating basket) from natural materials like banana trunk core and leaves with flowers. It?s the symbol of respect we have toward the mother of water sources. We float the basket into the river and let it float away to let go of past bad thoughts. People usually make a wish from god after all. Nowadays, kratong are made of styrofoam, colored plastic and others modern materials. Thais have adapted their kratongs toward the society. They don?t really have time to collect natural stuff and make a beautiful kratong. So, they usually buy it and float it instead of making it. As we all know that these materials are not eco-friendly and will become trash in the next morning. People realize that a large amounts of styrofoam and plastic are hard to get rid of and long-lasting floated in the river unless someone move them. Then the new trend of kratong are coming up which are more reasonable. Kratong that made of bread (baked into the form of krathong) or recycle paper are being pupular in these recently years. People expect that bread krathong can disintegrate in a few a days or be eaten by fish and paper can be natural degradation. In fact, tons of bread and recyclable Materials still pollute the river by destroying the ecosystem.Tourist attraction as Chiang Mai and Sukhothai (northern Thailand),when it's Loi Kratong day there will be thousands kratongs covered until the surface of the water is hard to be seen. The exceeding bread and piece of paper may be eaten by fish or turtle and harm them to death. The water will be pollute from the rotten stuff and lack of oxygen. This year there were about 100 tons of kratongs in Ping river (Main river in Chiang Mai) after the festival. The main 90% of kratongs were made of natural materials including bread and color paper. They became rotten and smelly so Chiang Mai governor set up "the big cleaning day" on November 10th. People in Chiang Mai got together to help cleaning up the river. Rotten kratongs were spilt out and distributed to local farmer to apply fertilizer. There were some pins and staples mixed with kratongs which cannot be natural degradation and need to be panned. The processes took a week with a troop of soldiers to complete. This ceremony may be destroying environment when it was meant to show thankfulness toward the nature. My community where I lived in, have faced the same problem and we have to spend the common funds to clean kratong out every year. This year our community have agreed with newcampaign "one kratong per one family". I also made comments that type of materials and the sizing of krotong should be described as well. I start to make a little change by making 2 tiny kratongs of water freezing to ice and fallen petal from my community park. One is for my family (my dad, my mom, my sister and me) and the other for my aunt's family. He and his family live nearby but in different community from me and they come to join the ceremony every year. Loi Kratong day in this year, I wish a little change we all made each day will help to save the world.
P.S.>>> I am going to share this idea to the head of community. Then the new questions gush from my head, what will happen if everyone float an ice kratong, can they cool the water and pollute the river and so on. Before next coming Loi Kratong, I must figure it out. :) |
   
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38 Comments
That's pretty nice scheme.
We must celebrate our culture but in doing so we must harm our environment as well.
If we throw decompose materials into the rivers than, dissolved oxygen will be used abruptly thus causing its deficiency and making it hard for aquatic organism to survive.
Good article to read Swasamon
Posted 01-12-2014 02:12
Its really fascinating and I am thinking how we can adopt this sort of innovative idea in a country like Bangladesh
Posted 30-11-2014 19:35
I am so amused by its concept!! Really AMAZING
Posted 30-11-2014 17:40
But as you said .. we must be aware from harming the nature without purpose
Posted 30-11-2014 07:12
Ohhh , Such Marvelous !! simply amazing
Posted 30-11-2014 07:08
such a great concept)
Posted 30-11-2014 04:14
very nice!! I want to make this in my college
Posted 29-11-2014 22:51
Respect to Nature I believe - This is how we express our creativity our GREEN juice!
Posted 29-11-2014 09:24
Beautiful :)
Posted 28-11-2014 19:08
Your idea was innovative and out of the box. You should encourage your friend, neighbors and everyone possible to follow your idea.
Posted 28-11-2014 18:27
cool
Posted 28-11-2014 12:51
nice
Posted 28-11-2014 12:51
so creative
Posted 28-11-2014 12:50
Your idea is quite good.
Ice kratongs would be much better than artificial kratongs or bread kratongs!
Posted 27-11-2014 21:44
Your idea is really good Swasamon.Definitely a festival celebrated for respect of nature shall not harm it.Thanks for sharing about this interesting and beautiful festival.:)
Posted 27-11-2014 12:04
Thanks you guys so much for commenting on my new idea. I know it would take quite a long time to bring this to public's eyes. You should try this at home, it's easy and fun :D also beautiful (in its own way) and eco-friendly. If you guys want to see this ceremony in Thailand, I suggest you come in about the first week of November. In Loi Kratong day we also float lots of sky lanterns which looks so stunning in the night sky. The sky lanterns are those shiny flying lamps in Tangled (Rapunzel) movie.
Posted 27-11-2014 11:11
Everything has 2 sides. I think this is basically a nice event. We should reduce the amount of waste to remain this traditional ceremony
Posted 26-11-2014 18:40
BTW how long does it take to clean the rivers after that festival?
Posted 26-11-2014 16:13
Thank you for sharing that information with us?
Posted 26-11-2014 16:12
Traditions are very important and people should be respectful to them, but in such cases when it can harm environment, animals around and finally people there is a need to limit the amounf of possible decoration or whether government to take care of cleaning the river on the next day. It will cost a lot and traditions would be harmed, but I think that is the way to solve that problem.
Posted 26-11-2014 16:12
The picture of 2013 looks very terrible from the ecological point of view. Thats a big problem if that is main river.
Posted 26-11-2014 16:10
First of all thanks for sharing this interesting ritual, Swasamon.
I fully agree with the environmental aspects of such rituals. They increase the pollution in a great way.
btw ice kratong is an excellent idea. I'm sure this will become more popular as Christy is also thinking the same.
Posted 26-11-2014 14:03
Looks very beautiful. Makes me want to go Thailand :)
Posted 26-11-2014 13:55
It's marvelous what modern technology can do today, Swasamon Jaidee. Thank you for your sharing!
Posted 26-11-2014 08:38
What a nice idea is! Brilliant!
Posted 26-11-2014 06:59
i think, you have to make your people more aware of the environment. Culture is important, and i agree for your tradition to live on. But you need to educate the people of how plastics and styrofoam might damage the environment. They are forgetting the main purpose of your tradition (respecting the nature), i'm going to Thailand in couple of months, hope i can see this problem fixed. You did a great job btw, keep it up :D
Posted 26-11-2014 04:32
I loved the pictures and the developement and changes throughout the year . It creates this sort of ' holy' and ' sacred' feeling for water which should be kept as a highly important water resource
Thank you for sharing :)
Posted 26-11-2014 03:53
Thanks for introducing this lovely ceremony /festival to us . It's really interesting. But as Christy said that this festival's significance is our love towards mother nature and traditionally Krathong should be made of natural stuff but ironically as times have evolved people started making it least eco friendly . Your innovative idea of your sweet kratong is adorable , very cute.
Posted 26-11-2014 01:23
I hope I can participate in this ceremony.
Posted 25-11-2014 22:52
so nice... :))
Posted 25-11-2014 22:47
Your idea of an ice kratong is amazing! You must share it! Although it may cause the water temperature to drop, I believe it is a much better option! Keep us posted about the development of your tradition.
Posted 25-11-2014 21:22
Thank you Swasamon for sharing about this wonderful ceremony.
Posted 25-11-2014 18:28
Loi KRATONG CEREMONY has a meaning to pay due respect water resources. I can see the beautiful Kratong images. But yeah we should keep in mind our ceremony maintains ecological balance and doesn't have negative impacts in environment and its components. 1 kratong per family, made up of degradable materials like bread can have dual effects of continuing tradition as well as environmental conservation :) I came to know about new ceremony Swasamon
Posted 25-11-2014 14:51
The article was really interestings and lovely, thank you Swasamon! :)
I liked the meaning of the Loi Kratong day, respect for the mother nature.
And the irony is profound as you mentioned.
Actually I was also thinking about the same idea, making ice kratong.
Hopefully I can hear the result from you.
It's definitely a far better idea than an artificial kratong or bread kratong.
Posted 25-11-2014 13:28
great,...
Posted 25-11-2014 08:37
I have been in Thailand just this September. I realized that it isn't so different from my country, the Philippines except for the Buddha and magnificent shrines that you have. I really admire your efforts in maintaining agricultural lands despite the urban development. It was a very short trip but I wish I had more time to spend traveling around. I will definitely come back soon! :)
Posted 25-11-2014 06:22
Fascinating!
Posted 25-11-2014 02:15
nice!!
Posted 25-11-2014 01:03