Thais to go green on Loykratong this year
: 19 Nov 2010
Thais go green on Loykratong this year
source: NNT News More and more Thais are going green. Reportedly, environmentally friendly kratongs will be in huge demand in the upcoming Loy Kratong, the festive yearly event, coming up this weekend.
Retailers from all over Thailand flock over the community of Kosumphee-Nakorn, in Kampangpet Province, to buy special kratongs to be resold to their customers. These special kratongs, made of corn shells, have lately been popular with festival-goers, given they do not pollute waterways the way artificial materials do. Besides, they generate a tidy sum for community members.
Reportedly, over 6,000 corn-shell kratongs, priced between 10 to 300 baht each, have already been sold to retailers, fetching over 100,000 baht for this small community.
As the abbot of Taniyapol temple in Pratumtani has repeatedly encouraged locals to use natural materials for their kratongs in order to help preserve the environment, some of his disciples have turned to using bread for the kratongs, which have since been a big hit.
In the North of Thailand, giant firecrackers which cause a number of serious injuries every year are now banned in Chiang Mai Province; moreover, lanterns are not allowed to be released before 9 pm, as they might disrupt flights landing at or taking off from Chiengmai Airport, given the festive event site is very close to the airport.
http://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news.php?id=255311180004