On the full moon of the 12th lunar month, Thailand floats millions of small offerings on rivers, khlongs, lakes, and hotel ponds. Each krathong carries a candle, incense, and flowers. The water becomes a carpet of light. Thanks to the water goddess, a send-off for grudges, a wish.
Loy Krathong 2026 is 24 November. That date is pinned to the moon, not to a tourism board. Songkran is the exuberant one; this is the quiet spectacular. Thai calendar. Buddhist Era: 2569 BE = 2026.
The name
- Loy (ลอย) — to float
- Krathong (กระทง) — a small vessel, classically a slice of banana trunk dressed in folded banana leaf, flowers, a candle, three incense sticks
Origins (all three at once)
- Court story: Sukhothai lady Noppamas (Nang Nopphamat) floats the first krathong for King Ramkhamhaeng. Beauty contests still wear her name.
- Brahmanical: thanks and apology to Mae Khongkha (the Ganges as water goddess) for using and polluting water.
- Buddhist reading: send bad luck and ill-feeling downstream.
Thais light, wish, pray, and often add a hair and a nail clipping — a piece of the self going with the trouble. Ancient kingdoms, Sukhothai, Buddhism in Thailand.
What goes on the water
Traditional krathongs are banana and flowers. Polystyrene versions exist and are a drainage problem. Campaigns push banana, bread (fish can eat it), even ice. Buy the natural one even if it costs a bit more.
Typical load: one candle, three incense sticks, marigolds/orchids/lotus, sometimes a coin for merit, optionally hair and nail. Folded banana leaf on a slice of trunk is the craft; bread krathongs exist so fish can eat the boat; ice melts. Styrofoam is the drain-clog with a candle.
| Place | What you will actually see |
|---|---|
| Sukhothai Historical Park | The “original” night: light-and-sound, ponds, pageant |
| Chiang Mai | Yi Peng lanterns plus river krathongs — the photograph |
| Bangkok — Chao Phraya | Temples, parks, Asiatique, hotel lawns |
| Bangkok — Lumphini | Quieter, local, lake |
| Tak | A line of ~1,000 coconut-shell krathongs down the Ping — a river of fire |
| Ayutthaya | Ruins, atmosphere |
Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Ayutthaya. Land & Sea on the water you are using: Rivers and waterways.
Yi Peng (Chiang Mai)
Northern Yi Peng (ยี่เป็ง) overlaps: khom loi sky lanterns. Thousands of paper lights over the moat and wats. Combined with krathongs on the Ping, it is the image every feed already has.
- Ping River at the Iron Bridge — popular release
- Mae Jo University — mass lantern release, often a few days before the moon night, the most photographed
- Old-city moat
- Tha Phae Gate — parades, pageants, food
Fire is real. Lanterns have burned roofs and drifted into approach paths. Bangkok bans sky lanterns. Chiang Mai permits with restrictions that move — especially near the airport and on nights the province publishes a ban. Do not assume a 2016 photograph is still legal on the airport approach. Check the current provincial rule, not a hostel poster.
| Loy Krathong | Yi Peng | |
|---|---|---|
| Object | Krathong on water | Khom loi in the sky |
| Geography | Nationwide | Lanna / Chiang Mai especially |
| 2026 clock | Full moon 24 November | Same lunar window; Mae Jo often a few nights off |
| Legal heat | Foam vs banana | Fire, roofs, aircraft |
They overlap in Chiang Mai and are not the same rite. A river float in Bangkok is Loy Krathong without the lantern photograph. A lantern-only night at Mae Jo is Yi Peng without the banana boat. You can do both in one northern week. You do not have to.
The song
“Wan pen deuan sip song, nam ko nong tem taling…” — “On the full moon of the twelfth month, the water is high to the banks…” 1940s melody, inescapable in November. Shops, radios, temple PA. You will know it by the third taxi.
Practical
- Date: full moon, 12th Thai lunar month. 2026: 24 November. Buddhist Era 2569 BE. Other years, look it up — the moon does not care about a hotel package.
- Make a krathong at a temple workshop if you can; buying foam is the other choice. Launch from a step, not from a moving longtail.
- Couples release together; folklore says if both candles stay lit and the floats travel as a pair, so do you. Harmless as folklore. Do not throw a fight on the bank if they part.
- Crowds peak at the Iron Bridge and Tha Phae after dark. Lumphini and a neighbourhood wat are the local version.
- Low light: a phone on a wall is better than a wander on wet stone with a DSLR and no compact umbrella. Fulton Tiny 1
B002PHM6BCis a colour menu, so this stays a search. - Modest dress at wats that night too. Linen scarf, slip-on shoes. Temple etiquette.
- Coins in the krathong are merit, and also a reason children wade. Do not throw glass.
November weather: cool/dry north and central; Andaman usually opening; Gulf can still be the wet one. Similans typically open from ~15 October. Which coast, Monsoon seasons.
Table & Bazaar if you eat after the float: night-market food, not a polystyrene dessert. Night markets.
Yi Peng is not the same night everywhere
Chiang Mai’s sky lanterns (khom loi) often run on a related but separately permitted calendar. Tour operators sell “Loy Krathong + Yi Peng” as one product. Check the year’s municipal permit before you book a field of 10,000 lanterns. Some years the big release is ticketed, dated, and away from the river. The krathong in the water is still the older, quieter rite.
Sukhothai’s historical park puts on a fair with lights on brick — beautiful and crowded. Bangkok does the river from piers in the old city and from hotel lawns. A neighbourhood klong with three families and banana-leaf floats is the version that does not need a drone shot.
If you fly lanterns, use the ones the organisers issue. Homemade tissue and wire has started fires. Do not launch near airport approaches. Do not launch from a wat roof.
The full moon of the 12th lunar month in 2026 is 24 November. In 2027 it slides (commonly mid-November). Re-check; do not trust a 2019 blog.
Next
Thai calendar, Songkran, Temple etiquette, Sukhothai, Rivers and waterways.