Yi Peng: the Chiang Mai lantern festival

If there's one time of year to be in Chiang Mai, it's this. For a few nights every November the old city glows — golden lanterns drift up into the dark, candles float down the river, and the whole place feels lit from within. It's genuinely one of the most beautiful things we've ever seen, and if you can time your stay for it, you should.

Two festivals, one magical week

People call it "the lantern festival," but it's really two celebrations happening at once:

• Yi Peng is the Northern Thai one: the sky lanterns (khom loi) you've seen in photos, released into the night as a way of letting go of the past year's troubles.
• Loy Krathong is celebrated all over Thailand: people float little decorated baskets (krathong) — banana leaf, flowers, a candle — down the rivers to thank the water and make a wish. Legend traces the very first floating krathong to the old royal capital of Sukhothai, an easy day trip from Chiang Mai, where the festival is still beautifully staged among the ruins.

In Chiang Mai they fall on the same nights, so you get both: lanterns above, candlelight on the water below.

When it happens

The festival follows the lunar calendar — the full moon of the twelfth month, usually in November — so the exact dates shift every year. In 2026 it lands around 24–25 November. If you're planning around it, double-check that year's dates closer to the time, and book early: it's the busiest week of the year here.

How to experience it (mostly free)

Here's the thing most people don't realise: the best of it is free. You don't need a ticket to be swept up in it.

• Tha Phae Gate & the old city — the heart of the celebrations, with stages, traditional dance, and lantern-lined streets over several evenings.
• The Ping River (around Nawarat Bridge) — where everyone floats their krathong. Buy one from a riverside stall (20–30 THB), make your wish, and set it on the water.
• The grand parades — illuminated floats and traditional dress winding through the old city on the big nights.

If you want the famous "sea of lanterns" mass release, that's a separate ticketed event held outside the city (from around 4,900 THB, including transport, dinner and your lanterns) — they sell out, so book well ahead. But honestly? Wandering the old city with a krathong in hand is magic enough.

Please do it responsibly

A gentle word, because it matters here:

• Only release sky lanterns where it's clearly allowed. Chiang Mai's airport is close by, and stray lanterns genuinely cause flight cancellations — releases are tightly regulated and banned in much of the city. The legal mass releases are the organised events outside town.
• Go easy on the planet. Choose a krathong made of banana leaf or bread, never foam or plastic, and don't launch more lanterns than you need.
• It's a religious occasion as much as a party — dress modestly at temples and be gentle with your photos of monks and ceremonies.

By day, the city's quieter pleasures are still right there — a bowl of khao soi and a slow coffee before the lanterns go up. Time it right and you'll leave with the kind of memory that pulls people back to Chiang Mai for good.