by the grace of God: Thailand November festival in Sydney 2012- Loy Krathong (ลอยกระทง) part 1

To spare you from repeat information - please click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Krathong

You may find 'similar' festival in Taiwan or China where they launch lantern over the sky or buoyant decoration made of flower and candle in the river.
I break down the Sydney Loy Krathong 2012 festival coverage in to 5 parts, but Worry Not! Mostly are photos, so please enjoy the photos, as well as my review.

The annual loy krathong festival in Sydney started roughly about 5 years ago, thanks to the collaboration of Thai tourism board and Parramatta city council. Parramatta is located 24 km from Sydney CBD so the location is not too ideal due to most event held in Darling Harbour, Sydney CBD. But Parramatta river is the perfect spot due to the nature of Loy Krathong. To launch the 'krathong', you need river, and Darling Harbour is a 'car park' for small boats and sydney water taxi.

Krathong is made from different materials in different areas in Thailand. So what you see below may not share the same materials.

Krathong

krathong

The festival started at 5 PM as launching of krathong in the river usually happens at night time, and the atmosphere when they launched the krathong was really nice and serene. Coupled with a thai instrument and the smell coming from the burnt incense, i wonder how much more wonderful the festival is in its motherland, Thailand.

For the krathong, festival goers can buy the materials provided for $10, or if you are creative, i saw this young thai girl made the krathong on paper cup and collected left over paper from the krathong making workshop table. No one can tell the difference anyway.

Making a wish before launching the 'makeshift' krathong

The launching started around 8 PM, I believe there are more krathong launched in Thailand, so unfortunately, although there quite a lot of people joining the Sydney festival, the krathongs were not enough to cover Parramatta river.