Yi Peng at Mae Jo University

Yi Peng, is one of the most visually beautiful holidays I've ever experienced. And we heard that the ultimate Yi Peng experience is the simultaneous release of Khom Loys (lanterns) at Mae Jo University. We knew it was pretty crazy with tons of people there and it would be a long wait during the almost 2 hour Buddhist ceremony before the release, but it was totally worth it. When we all released the lanterns at the same time it was seriously breath taking. I wish I had another camera other than my phone. Because these don't even come close to doing it justice.

We had heard that parking was a mess and you need to get there REALLY early. Well, parking wasn't as bad as we had heard, but it was good that we got there early because it was super crowded and we barely got a seat in the main section. Most people who came after us had to just stand around the outskirts of the main area and watch. This was us walking. We were very curious what it was going to be like.

There was a lot of waiting around. Micaiah was at a friend's house for the night so there were only two kids to deal with. They were fine since the could play with the phone, but it was uncomfortable for all of us to sit on the ground that long with nowhere to move.

This is a picture after everyone lit the small torches in the ground. We would then use these torches to light light our lanterns.

We were getting excited!

 There were lots of fire works going off. The emcee was giving instructions in English and Thai, but it was a bit confusing. Plus, I think there were quite a few people that didn't understand either of those languages. But the signal to let the lanterns go was a very loud boom!

Basically the entire month of November the fireworks are insane. We live close to the river which is the main area that the "action" takes place. So we hear fireworks every night for hours. The week of Loy Krathong and Yi Peng is almost overwhelming with fireworks happening until 4 and 5am. Sometimes it makes the house shake. There were quite a few nights that the boys were having trouble going to sleep. But it's aso cool because the boys can see some really beautiful fireworks from their window. We're thankful that we use white noise machines that help drown out the noise.

Here is the video of the lanterns being released. It's pretty bad quality. Maybe next year I can get a better shot since I have a real camera now.

This is a video of some of the ceremony that happened before the lantern release. You can't see much, but there are people with candles walking around in a huge circle. I also think the chanting is really interesting.