I keep trying to describe the experience of the Lantern Festival. And I keep feeling like words fail. So I’m going to start with a little bit of context first. Maybe that will help.

The Yi Peng Festival is held on the full moon in the second month of the Lanna lunar calendar, usually November. That’s literally what Yi Peng means – ‘Full Moon of the Second Month’. The Lanna region began as a kingdom in the northwest of modern-day Thailand. The region shares cultural and historical roots with both Siam and Burma, and you can see the intertwined influences ithroughout the area. Chiang Mai was established as the capital of the Lanna Kingdom in 1296 and is the most famous site of the Yi Peng Festival. Today it’s a charming city full of friendly people, industry and culture.

At its heart, the Yi Peng festival is a religious ceremony to honor Buddha, give alms to the needy, and celebrate with family and community. It culminates with lighting sky lanterns and sending them up into the sky — sending away bad luck and making room for good fortune in your life.

The Yi Peng festival is held at the same time as the Loy Krathong festival celebrated in the rest of Thailand. The Loy Krathong are water lanterns meant to pay penance to the river gods for the harm we do to the river. Throughout Thailand, you can celebrate with Loy Krathong on the river. In Chiang Mai, you can celebrate with both sky lanterns and river lanterns.

For us, the Lantern Festival has been something we’ve dreamed about for years. This year we finally felt like we could pull it off, so we took the leap and booked it. Tim got tickets for the primary festival, celebrated at a fairground site about 45 minutes outside the city.

But between our normal busy lives and our recent trip to Tokyo, our planning for this trip has been a bit… haphazard. When we booked the tickets, we were extremely thankful that we could get any tickets at all. We didn’t think to read the fine print until the day of the festival. So it came as a bit of a surprise when we figured out that we would be traveling to the festival site in the back of a red truck. Somehow it was simultaneously terrifying and yet… exactly the right way to get to the festival.

Once we got there, the festival site was filled with demonstrations of everything Thai – weaving, music, roasted coffee, dancing, Muay Thai martial arts… even competitive Thai massage. They had stands set up with samples of local foods and drinks, complete with a bamboo tray and banana leaf to hold all the delectable goodies.

As the sun started to set, we made our way over to a dinner buffet and watched as the darkening sky illuminated the occasional sky lanterns. After dinner, we watched the religious ceremony with singing, drums, and chanting monks. At the conclusion, the staff came through and lit oil lamps throughout the seating area, and all the participants lit their lanterns and launched them to the sky.

It’s hard to describe the magic of the fire and light and joy. All infused with a slight edge of danger. As we got busy lighting our lanterns, the sky filled with fireworks and a river of glowing lanterns. We were surrounded by laughing and smiling families and couples. Everyone was lit by an incandescent glow. The four of us worked together to light our eight lanterns – the kids were intent on the task and were filled with wonder. It was a night of joy and magic. My troubles were lifted up and released into the sky. I left feeling optimistic and happy.