This tradition is so highly respected that for a period of two days, the airport puts a ban on night-time flights because of the complications they know would happen due to the mass releasing of lanterns.
Loy Krathong is a part of Thai tradition to show respect to the spirit world, in particular to the river goddess. Thai people rely heavily on the river to sustain life, whether for fishing, traveling, or irrigating crops. Thai people provide essentially gifts to the river goddess to ask for forgiveness and permission to continue to use her resources. The river is referred to as a woman because it essentially creates life, as a woman does. As a part of the ceremony, Thai people release krathongs to float on the river and lanterns to rise into the air as a sign of releasing negative baggage from the past and embracing the positive forces which are to come in the future.
This tradition is very much connected to the environment because of its close tie to the river, which sustains life for Thai people. In addition, the lanterns may get stuck in inconvenient spaces such as in trees or near homes and sometimes even start fires. The krathongs are traditionally made of banana trunks, which are fine to release into the river, but sometimes today they are created with styrofoam, which is rather bad for the health of the river. Rather than respecting the river goddess, the use of harmful materials could actually be perceived as a disrespectful act. Overall, though, this holiday has clear ties to nature, and it celebrates the environment.
