Loy Krathong

I didn’t know it was a special day yesterday, so it was a big surprise to me when we went out at nightime and I saw all the lights. It was a majestical experience.

     All day long my brothers, well, I don’t know what else to call them, they live in my house, that my dad built, and mum feeds them, but they are no relatives of mine thank you, were making boats out of banana leaves and flowers. They put candles on them too, and I have to say, they did look good.

I tried to make one. It was rubbish, and I got shouted at for mucking theirs up. So I wasn’t in a very good mood again when mum’s friend, Cun, the man with one eye who winks at me with both eyes shut, like I do, came round and took us all to the lake. Not the one at the bottom of my garden, the one in town.

     When we got there, I was amazed. Everybody had been spending the day making banana leaf boats as well. All the candles were lit and were floating all over the lake. Mum lit our candles and we all floated our boats to join with the others.

     We had to make a wish to Mae Khong Kha. She’s the Goddess of all the water spirits. We have to say “Thank you” to her for the rain we’ve just had to make the rice grow. If she’s in the mood, and you don’t ask for something stupid, she’ll make your wish come true.

     I didn’t wish for my dad to come back. I thought that might be pushing my luck because my dad is going to come back, or not, when it suits him, not to please me or any old water Goddess. What I wished for was that if when he comes back, he brings me a pink Barbie bicycle with him.

     They don’t have Loy Krathong in England. Dad told me once that in England, everybody has to do what the Christians want. He said they get angry if you say you don’t want to, though it’s not so bad now. In the olden days, before the war, and even before my dad was born, they would kill you if you said “Get stuffed Jesus,” or anything like that.

     The Christian people have special days too, but they make their wishes for Barbie bikes and stuff to Jesus. My dad says that he is a symbol of their beliefs. He said that they believe Jesus’ mum was still a virgin when he was born. “Do me a favour” he said. Also that they celebrate the day when they killed Jesus for saying “Do me a favour” when they asked him if his dad was a carpenter.

     The Christians cebrilate killing lots of people in the olden days for saying “Do me a favour” when asked “Do you want to be a Christian?” The Christians don’t do that anymore. If people still want to do that, they have to join the Muslims.