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If you’ve ever seen pictures of hundreds of flying lanterns majestically floating through the air and wondered, “Is this festival really worth it?”  Well, I’m here to tell you that the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival is definitely worth it!  This festival really is as beautiful as it looks and has an intriguing meaning behind it as well.

Introduction

In this blog, we’ll explore everything you need to know about planning a trip to the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival.  We’ll share the history of the festival, when it is, where to get tickets, and what to expect once you get there.  

The History of the Festival

The Yi Peng Festival is a full moon festival which originated hundreds of years ago during the times of the Lanna Kingdom in Chiang Mai.  Yi Peng is celebrated on the full moon of the twelfth lunar month of the year which usually falls in November.  

The purpose of the Yi Peng Festival is to honor the Buddha and for the participants to symbolically light their suffering on fire and send their worries flying, allowing them to start fresh in the new year. 

The Yi Peng Festival with the flying lanterns is unique to Chiang, Mai in Thailand.  Most cities in Thailand celebrate Loy Krathong which is a harvest festival where you send a floating lantern boat down the river giving merit to the Buddha and releasing your suffering.    

Chiang Mai is one of the few places in Thailand where you can celebrate both Yi Peng and Loy Krathong at the same time combining two beautiful traditions into one.   

See what the event is like for yourself with the video below!

Where to Buy Tickets

Chiang Mai has about 5 different lantern festivals, but we can highly recommend CAD because they have an extremely well organized program that is easily accessible for the English speaker.  The ceremony was translated into several languages making it easy for everyone to understand the deeper meaning behind the ceremony.  We could not find any information in English related to the other 4 festivals.

What to Expect 

We bought the standard ticket and were pleased with the quality of the food and the seats at this tier.  There are also VIP and premium seating options available which include a better selection of food at dinner and better quality seating during the show.  

All tickets include transportation to the event from the designated meeting point.  From the meeting point, it was about a 30 minute bus ride out to a remote rice field where the festival is held.  The rice field was beautifully decorated with candles and lanterns everywhere.   Plus, there really was a lot to see and do with traditional dance performances, fireworks, and a variety of scattered lanterns going up throughout the night.  

Dinner 

Dinner was also included which included with your ticket.  With the standard ticket, we received a basket full of food, including fried chicken, a variety of sticky rices, and fruits.  In additional, on the side of the eating area, there were several food stations where you can pick up additional dishes like papaya salad, pad thai, and kao sai.  There was definitely no shortage of food at this event.  

The Main Event

The highlight of the night was the main event which started with a traditional ritual including traditional drumming, lovely candle dancers, and monks who chant their prayers so that we all will be able to release our worries as we release our lanterns.  

The Flying Lanterns

Before we released the lanterns, they gave everyone a quick lantern tutorial and then it was time to light the lantern and send it flying.  They give each person two flying lanterns, but the lanterns are so large it’s better if you have a friend help you light and send up the lanterns.  It’s an experience that is simply breathtaking.  With the music playing and the fireworks going off I audible said, “wow!”  It was truly amazing to see.

The Floating Lanterns

After we sent our lanterns flying, they also had floating lanterns that we could light and send down the river.  

All the lanterns were eco friendly with biodegradable materials, and the CAD team goes out to pick up all the fallen lanterns from the surrounding farm lands the next day. 

In Conclusion

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience at the lantern festival in Chiang Mai.  The city was beautifully decorated for the festival and it was really a colorful time to visit.  If you are interested, in some things you can do while you are in Chiang Mai for the festival, please check out the video below.

Hope you can come to experience the magic of this amazing lantern festival for yourself! 

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