Honour Loy Krathong the right way

Honour Loy Krathong the right way

(Photo: Tanaphon Ongarttrakul)
(Photo: Tanaphon Ongarttrakul)

If you think I'm going to point out how ironic Loy Krathong (November 11) is, you're wrong, dear readers. But, in case you need a refresher, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever that we ask for forgiveness from the Water Goddess for using and contaminating her water by dumping beautifully decorated floating baskets (which overnight turn into garbage) on her.

At the risk of sounding like a goody two shoes, I would like to urge you to honour Loy Krathong, or our water to be more accurate, with the following activities instead.

Join your local chapter of Trash Hero Thailand

That's no more straightforward way to honour our bodies of water than picking up trash floating in them. The first group of these good peeps was founded by local and tourist volunteers in Koh Lipe back in late 2013. Now Trash Hero Thailand (fb.com/trashherothailand) has chapters in major cities and islands of Thailand that you can be part of whether you want to clean up canals, beaches, and other public spaces. These chapters organise clean-up activities on a regular basis you can just follow their respective Facebook pages and join. For Trash Hero Bangkok, they tackle Taco Lake in Bang Phli every Thursday.

Stop using single-use plastic bags

You may think you won't see your plastic wastes again after dumping them into a bin but they can reappear again, floating in our rivers and seas and waiting to choke innocent creatures who mistake them for food. Karma makes us pay too because fish has been found with microplastic particles in them. A research centre in Songkhla recently revealed they have found microplastic in the majority of fishes and squids they sampled. Please enjoy a fried platoo with 78 pieces of microplastic or a steamed cuttlefish drenched in spicy dressing so crunchy because of 41 microplastic pieces inside.

The good news is that major retailers in Thailand have vowed to stop giving out single-use plastic bags, starting from January next year. 7-Eleven recently announced that it will start 2020 by not giving out plastic bags from Jan 1, 2020 onwards.

This makes me want to shop at my local 7-Eleven at 11.59pm on Dec 31, 2019 just to ask for a plastic bag and take photo of it for my social media. And, probably, frame it as a keepsake because it'll be the last plastic bag I got for free from 7-Eleven.

Float Krathong Virtually

If you still want to honour the tradition, which was said to originate in Sukhothai Era, you can do so via various applications/websites that allow you to float a virtual krathong right from your smartphones. Of course, you can share it on your social media too.

Stop Floating Krathong

Just stop. Even the eco-friendly krathongs. Seriously.

Pornchai Sereemongkonpol

Guru section Editor

Guru section Editor

Email : pornchais@bangkokpost.co.th

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