CHIANG MAI, THAILAND
Common throughout Asia, sky lanterns are basically hot air balloons made out of bamboo, rice paper and a big candle. Like most things on fire, they were invented in China sometime after the third century BC as signaling devices. I imagine they probably did a good job at scaring the crap out of bloodthirsty Central Asian nomads, too. Nowadays they’re a little bit tamer – the Lanna of Northern Thailand put all their worries and troubles in the contraptions and release them into the night sky.

Loi Kratong is a holiday held on the last full moon of the Thai lunar year. Chiang Mai has a special corollary called Yi Peng, where people gather by the river to release thousands upon thousands of sky lanterns while shooting off fireworks and presumably drinking diluted rum. This year it falls sometime in the first few days of November, but as I learned during Tet ’07 festival dates in Asia are a little slippery.

And yeah, sometimes they catch on fire.