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. :)