Today is the lantern festival. I’ve seen pictures but I’m not clear on how it all works. We began our journey by navigating a line at Maya Mall and was soon whisked away in an air-conditioned van with ten passengers and a driver. Judging by soft conversations I’d guess mostly German. Yay, another adventure! It was about a 50-minute drive out of the city.
The elderly man to my right was talking about rising covid and snow in his home country of Germany. Dude, focus on today, right here, right now.
In a Catholic church I certainly feel like an interloper and a tad out of place. Here is a bit different, though with Buddhism I’m a tad ignorant, but comfortable. The Buddhists seem to have more fire involved with ceremonies and such, which I really like! 🙂
After navigating the grounds and checking-in to receive our VIP lanyard, which helped herd us cats. We found ourselves at some ‘candle burning place’. It seemed at first obvious to light a candle and place it somewhere. I’m sure it was much more meaningful for Buddhists, but we went through the motions, lit a candle, and wandered around looking for an open spot to put it. Quickly, I was overwhelmed but Diane swooped in and said, “put it on top of others”, which I could see others doing. We were not walking with solemn purpose nor speaking in tongues, or even having virtuous thoughts.
I did, however, think of Bruce and Dan, Mom and Dad, Charity and Mo. So maybe there is hope for me after all.
We arrive and see hundreds of songthaews, vans and buses already parked in a field at the CAD (Chiang Mai Arts and Design Center), which is an hour drive due east of Chiang Mai. It’s well organized and we checked in with the peeps we purchased tickets from, receive our VIP lanyards and wander through the event grounds. We eventually, made it to where we could grab a bite to eat. We seemed lost, when an attractive Australian woman walks up to us, takes pity, and lets us know where we are going. Yes, I like polite, kind people. There is a lot of that here. With age comes wisdom with true happiness… and people hate to see you lost.
We had spicy noodles, then went back for more and got pineapple rice with fried pork.
The VIP food area in the middle of a field had chairs and tables that seemed meant for kindergarteners, but we managed. I suspect this is a cultural thing along with safety. It’s hard to fall off a chair that is one foot off the ground, though there are challenges getting up.
There was loud traditional music, and it seemed like a zillion people. Our VIP lanyards helped with language barriers and it let people who were working the event know where we needed to be. With that, we found our way to our seats VJ17 and 18. There was a 30-foot tall pagoda with seats forming a circle around it. Think a giant spider web. There are a lot of people here. It is hard to guess, somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 thousand I suppose. Each plastic seat was covered with bright white cotton. White seemed to be the theme here. Around 75% of the people seemed to being only wearing white. We will know next time. Though when in the middle of a field of thousands of people, eating food while seated on kindergarten chairs, white is not my go-to color, if you know what I mean. Chairs tended to be in pairs with an unlit tiki torch between them and a fold-up lantern leaning next to it in a plastic bag.
The program began with monks chanting, which I just love. Then the drums… ‘drums in the deep.’
Reminded of the mines of Moria, I half expect orcs, but this seems a little more upbeat than that. Instead of orcs we were treated with beautiful Thai women in traditional clothing and dancing along with song. The arm and hand movements were mesmerizing. Yes, lots better than orcs.
The place was beautiful and elegant. It was also an extreme fire hazard that screamed the headline “Dozens of people burst into flames at Lantern Festival in Thailand.” Can people combust? I know rock-n-roll drummers tend to do this. I had a distant uncle who was an alcoholic. When he was cremated, he burned for three days. 😉
Wow, just wow! Combine excitement, fear of burning someone, awe, fear of burning myself, 10,000 lanterns ready to combust, mayhem and beauty. I’m running out of adjectives. This, without exaggeration, is the experience of a lifetime. I’m glad Diane went down this path for us. Left to my own designs I may have ended up in a vacant expat bar, drinking Chang beer and talking to a drunken Australian about surf conditions back home, while wondering where everyone is at. Luckily Diane is team leader.
Towards the end of the dance portion of the show I notice a hundred girls walking the isles with flames in their hands. Not magical, I just couldn’t remember what devices they were using. Candles? Our gal came by and lit our tiki torch. This was getting real. I dispatched the plastic covering around our lantern and moved the lantern up and down to fill it with air such to form its final shape. Mind you, I’m surrounded by thousands of people doing the same thing. The lantern was pretty much a thin coat-hanger around a wax disc attached to a nylon bag. Diane and I held it above the tiki torch and spent a good two minutes trying to get the disc to ignite completely. Half of it was on fire, but not enough to fill the lantern with hot air. I could hear cheers and screams around me. With some work, and trying to not catch something unintended on fire, including me, the lantern became filled and weightless. Diane helped straighten it and then went for her camera. I look around at the spectacle. I don’t have words. Then our lantern just left my hands and lifted straight up. Each seat had two, so there were nearly 10,000 lanterns slowly lifting up in the sky. As I type this up, from my handwritten notes the next day, I get a shiver. The lanterns lifted from everyone in that Buddhist shrine. It went on and on. So much time, I grabbed my camera and tried to document this un-documentable event.
Most went well, but some lanterns went sideways, bumped into people with shouts of warnings and screams. I looked around and saw a few people stamping on the ground their Hindenburg-like failures. Several landed in a large tree near the event. Several of the staff, armed with fire extinguishers, were keeping it somewhat safe. Thousands and thousands rose gracefully into the full moon lit sky.
An hour later we found ourselves at our fav place having beer on ice, eating a bit of food at 10pm and talking about the event. Life is good. No, life is great.
Click on the pics below for a youtube link to short 10-30 second videos. They are…. worth it.
These videos tell only a brief story. Click the play icon then make sure to click on the full screen box in the lower right corner and have the volume up….