CAB Stories

Loy Krathong Workshop & Lunch

with WNC AAPI & Dalaya Thai

Thanks so much to all who came out to celebrate the Thai festival, Loy Krathong! Chef Gun and the rest of the fam at Dalaya were so happy and grateful to be able to celebrate this tradition with family and friends from WNC AAPI. This event is something Gun and Mike from Caravan Art Bazaar have created for the past three years now, offering a free crafting experience to create floating lanterns before sharing lunch together.

This event is celebrated on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the Thai Lunar calendar. Designed to resemble a lotus flower or boat, a Krathong is traditionally a small floating lamp or vessel made from banana tree trunk or a spider lily plant, banana leaves, flowers, and other offerings such as food or coins, normally with three incense sticks and a candle.

Loi, or loy, means ‘to float’ and Krathong translates to ‘basket’ or ‘boat.’ These decorative offerings are released into the water to honor and ask forgiveness of the Goddess of Water, and pay respect to the Buddha. The candle venerates the Buddha with light, while the krathong's floating away symbolizes letting go of all one's hatred, anger, and defilements. People sometimes cut their fingernails or hair and place the clippings on the krathong as a symbol of letting go of past transgressions and negative thoughts.

While this years Loy Krathong landed on November 5th to coincide with the full moon, our event took place on a unique date, Nov 2nd. On this date, Mexico celebrates the second day of Dia de los Muertos, and Undas - or All Souls Day - is celebrated in the Philippines. This felt especially fitting since Caravan Art Bazaar is Filipino founded, and a handful of the folks who started WNC AAPI are also Filipino! We used the leftover banana leaves for the dining table to add a little Kapwa flare for lunch, and had an assortment of marigold flowers in the mix.

Chef Gun and Pooky cooked us up a three course lunch featuring fried black bean & taro spring rolls, Gaeng Garee Gai, and coconut milk with sweet corn & pandan tapioca.

Love gathering and celebrating with this community! Traditions and celebrations like these, especially when combining multiple cultures, serve as a fun reminder of how diverse our community is, as well as how unique AND similar some of our heritage cultures can be.

Special thanks to one of the CAB Collective Artists, Anthophile Flowers, for saving the very last of their flower harvest of the year for us! Among this harvest were Amaranths, Dahlias, and Marigolds.

Thanks to Evelyn, Gun, and Mike for organizing this Workshop event, and to all the folks who came out to celebrate with us! Photos submitted by Dora, Evelyn, Jonnie, & Mike.