Yi Peng & Loi Krathong Festival

Tonight is the Buddhist festival to celebrate the full moon. The festival is meant as a time for tham bun, or making merit and is believed to originate in an ancient practice of paying respect to the spirit of the waters. Hundreds of lanterns are launched into the sky and across the water, floating like stars next to the full moon.

I tried to take photos, but none would come out. [Photo stolen from Wikipedia]

Thus, the beauty is confined to my feeble words....

My Loi Krathong poem, composed in five minutes by the downtown lake:

Underneath our bright Moon
We launch thousands of prayers
To our Lord, prayers for love and
luck in life.
Floating fiery jellyfish in an ocean of hope
Outshine all the stars, moving slowly
Across the Sky
Falling to Earth, once the Fires
Are spent.