Loy Krathong Festival

• On the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar, thus the exact date of the festival changes every year.
• In the Western calendar this usually falls in the month of November.
• Location : Sukhothai Historical Park.

Loy Krathong and Candle Festival is the biggest fair held in Sukhothai as one of the World Top Ten well-known festivals. This festival is held annually in Sukhothai Heritage Park between October and November which allows Thais to pay respects to the Goddess of Water by floating Kratong (made from banana and other leaves decorated with flowers, candles, and incense sticks) into watercourses.

Since Sukhothai has been designated as a new member of UCCN in October 2019 this festival has been organized to preserve cultural heritage and integrated creativity and cultural-based activities in line with Sukhothai UCCN mission to promote creative economy of the city.

It reflects best practice in preserving cultural-based tradition and creating new opportunity by inducing creativity and crafts into Sukhothai. This event was held under a support from the Provincial Office and other public and private sectors including participation from communities in and around the city.

The Sukhothai Creative City Zone was designed by integrating with Loy Krathong and Candle Festival 2020 to celebrate Sukhothai’s wisdom on creative city for crafts and folk art for achieving sustainable development goals.

A variety of crafts and folk art from 9 districts in Sukhothai (pottery, jewelry, textiles, wooden and wicker works, bric-a-brac crafts, etc.) are presented in various forms of activities (exhibitions and showcases, DIY workshops, kiosks, shop stalls, etc.) for either learning or selling purposes.

A great number of visitors participated in crafts making booths where they could get their own take-away gifts. This is the biggest venue to display open craft markets in Thailand which was designed by respecting the World Heritage Buildings and archaeological sites of Sukhothai.

A concept of retro market atmosphere was applied to this festival which can be seen from vernacular building styles of the shops and kiosks made from local materials.

Impressively, this festival succeeds in encouraging people to wear traditional costumes and to learn from making crafts, to enjoy shopping and importantly, to appreciate the glory of the cultural heritage and prosperity of Sukhothai as a creative city for happiness.