Yi Peng Lantern Festival

Every year on the second full moon of the Lanna Calendar an incredible festival of fire and darkness takes place in northern Thailand. This two day event at the end of the rainy season is known as Yi Peng Lantern festival. A festival goer gets the opportunity at the end of both nights to participate in the “khom loi” tradition.

Buddhists believe that for the past year a person accumulates bad luck, in order to release this negative energy a person builds a paper lantern and at the peak of the celebration lights a lantern and releases it into the night. The paper lantern is lifted high into the sky, carrying with it your bad luck and ill omens. Make a wish as you release your lantern and watch it sail away into the night.