Hey everyone:

I am a bit behind in my blogging because there is just too much going on. That, my friends is a good thing. I have had some wonderfully rich experiences thus far, and the Yee Peng Festival falls amongst these.

I had posted a couple of videos on Facebook, but I thought I would do a more thorough blog of my time at this festival. As noted in a previous entry, I was lucky enough to be there for 2 festivals: the Yee Peng and Loi Krathong. Both were equally beautiful and meaningful.

The time of the festivals was November 9-11, the middle day being the biggest because it was the day of the full moon. Yee Peng, the festival of light, involves the release of huge paper lanterns into the moonlit sky. The light representing newness, and the release of the lanterns symbolic of gathering and releasing all of one’s woes, pain and suffering of the past year. Loi Krathong is a thanking of the river for all it has given to the people over the past year. Both festivals are held during the first full moon after the end of the monsoon season.

On the 9th, I spent the evening with Joe and Keith, pilots from Macau in town on business and the former being the husband of Friend Jennifer from Canada. It was welcomed company. For me, (and I think for Keith and Joe) the highlight of the evening was going down to the river, lighting and letting go of our lanterns into the moonlit sky; lanterns that symbolically took away our woes and bad luck of the last year. We were all equally mesmerized by the beauty of glowing the lanterns, of the sky dotted with the lanterns, and of the communal experience of preparing the for the lanterns’ release. For Joe and I, we both had this experience on our bucket lists. There was a sense of delight in taking this off of the list.

On this trip, I have to say that this simple experience has been the best experience thus far.

I was also there for the second night, November 10th. The experience was equally engaging and magical. What i did notice was that I longed for friends, my bro and a sense of having a community around me, of peeps dear to me. It was my first time since leaving Canada feeling this way.

Lighting the lanterns is not meant to be a solitary activity and surrounding me were groups of friends, families, and fellow travelers sharing in this magical experience. I wanted a group of my own. I had a lantern and did find a kind group of locals who helped me with the task, but it was different from the night before of having that shared experience. I wish you could have been there. I did enjoy the evening wandering the banks of the river watching, observing, marveling and appreciating the beauty of it all. I can’t even begin to describe what the sky looked like. It was filled with thousands of lanterns over the course of the entire night. They were continually being released and there was no apparent end to the supply. My favorites
were ones that had firecrackers attached so that from afar the lanterns looked like slow moving shooting stars.

I got some pictures with my iPhone-not the best as I had accidentally destroyed my digital camera earlier in the day. A leaky water bottle camera in a purse are not great companions.

Pictures are attached and should give you an idea of what the night looked like.