Beautiful Photos of Thailand’s Yi Peng Lantern Festival

Nov 09, 2024

Photos only capture a small part of this majestic festival's beauty.

If you've seen these incredible photos of people setting off floating lanterns that peacefully lift over bodies of water by beautiful temples, and always wondered where that happened, wonder no more! It occurs during Yi Peng, a festival celebrated mostly in northern Thailand and some regions in Laos. Yi Peng is a Buddhist festival that occurs during the full moon of the 2nd month of the Lanna Lundar Calendar, and the 12th month of the Thai Lunar Calendar. On the Western calendar, it usually falls in November and happens on the 15 and 16th in 2024. While it may be more crowded, it's a beautiful time to visit the northern city of Chiang Mai, as it also overlaps with another Buddhist festival, Loy Krathong, where people float rafts with candles on rivers.

While photos can only do so much to convey how spectacular these traditions and festivities look, here are some of the best photos of the Yi Peng Lantern Festival we could find.

While the main ceremonies and most beautiful moments of the festival occur at night, gorgeous decorations like these colored lanterns are usually set up for people to enjoy during the daytime. They'll be even more stunning after sunset, of course.

Speaking of which, here's what some of those paper lanterns look like once nighttime festivities have begun.

This stunning sunset photo was taken at the Buddhist temple Wat Phra That Haripunchai Woramahawihan which is located south of Chiang Mai.

These dancers are throwing around marigold flower petals, which are used in many Thai celebratory events and festivals.

Monks at the temple Wat Phan Tao in Chiang Mai carry out a ceremony for Yi among a great many candles and paper lanterns.

The lanterns, known as Khom Loy, are made with thin paper attached to a wire or bamboo frame that supports a small fuel source. It usually takes teamwork to get one floating, but the result is undeniably beautiful.

While you will probably see a few stray lanterns floating all night, you're meant to wait until after ceremonies have concluded to set off the lanterns all at once, creating a beautiful combined effect and bringing the crowd of festivalgoers together.

This incredible effect is a camera trick! The lines were created by people walking around the Wat Huay Pla Kang temple with lit candles, while a photographer takes a long exposure shot, which is one photo captured more slowly than a typical quick shot. The process is also sometimes called light painting.

Imagine seeing this with your own two eyes in real life. Hardly anything in the world can even come close to this kind of spectacle.

Chiang Mai may be one of the most-visited cities for Yi Peng, but you can see it in plenty of other places around Thailand. Here is a celebration in Bangkok, with lanterns floating around the Buddhist temple Wat Arun.

In another shot at the beautiful Wat Arun, a couple readies a lantern whose paper is fully inflated by the hot air from the burning flame.

Along with the floating lanterns in the sky, You'll see plenty of floating offerings called Krathong, made with cut banana stems and leaves usually adorned with flowers and a candle, in waterways as a celebration of Loy Krathong.

Here is one festivalgoer's Krathong creation with some beautiful flowers inside.

Chiang Mai was the capital city of the Lan Na kingdom in northern Thailand, which lasted from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Chiang Mai was first founded in 1296, succeeding Chiang Rai as the Lan Na capital and eventually becoming the second-largest city in the country.

As long as you make sure your kids are careful around the lantern, there's no reason why they can't get in on the festivities!

Even though getting the perfect photo is amazing, make sure to also take some time and soak up the beauty in the moment. This goes for any sort of vacation or profound life event. These photos are awe-inspiring, but it will be an even more cherished memory if you're present for it as well.

Jacob is a Temporary Partnerships Editor at Hearst based in Queens, New York with his partner and cat Tiger. He loves learning and writing about Film and TV, Video Games, and the weird histories of unexpected subjects.

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