Guides · Tue 27 Oct 2026
Loy Krathong and Yi Peng 2026: one full moon, two festivals
Tuesday 24 November 2026 is Loy Krathong across Thailand and Yi Peng in the north on the same full moon. What happens on the Bangkok river, what happens in Chiang Mai, how the ticketed CAD lantern release works, and which dates are still only tentative.
The short answer: On Tuesday 24 November 2026 the full moon of the twelfth Thai lunar month lights up two festivals at once. Across Thailand it is Loy Krathong, the night of floating small candlelit offerings on water. In the north, and above all in Chiang Mai, the same night is Yi Peng, the Lanna festival of light, when temples and streets fill with lanterns and ticketed venues outside the city stage mass sky lantern releases. Bangkok does the first festival in full and the second hardly at all. Chiang Mai does both on one night, which is why it draws the bigger crowds. Our calendar records are Loy Krathong in Bangkok 2026, Yi Peng and Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai 2026 and the Chiang Mai CAD Khomloy Sky Lantern Festival 2026.
What the two festivals are
A krathong is a small float, traditionally made from a slice of banana trunk and decorated with banana leaves, flowers, incense and a candle. To loy is to float. At dusk people carry their krathongs to a river, canal, lake or pond, light the candle, make a wish and set the float on the water. The gesture is usually explained two ways at once: thanks to Mae Khongkha, the goddess of water, and a letting go of the misfortunes of the past year as the float drifts away. In Bangkok the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the city ask for krathongs made only from natural materials that break down in the water, and that request is worth following literally. Foam floats are collected by the tonne the next morning.
Yi Peng belongs to the old Lanna kingdom of the north. Its calendar name is different, the full moon of the second month in the Lanna reckoning, but it lands on the same night. Chiang Mai marks it with hanging lanterns at temples, homes and gates, small clay lamps lit along walls and temple grounds, evening ceremonies and, at permitted venues outside the city, releases of khom loi, the paper sky lanterns lifted by hot air. The photographs that sell the festival, thousands of lights rising together, come from those organised releases. They are not something that happens spontaneously above the Old City, and releasing a sky lantern in central Chiang Mai is not part of the public celebration.
Bangkok on the night
Bangkok has no single Loy Krathong ground. The celebration spreads along the Chao Phraya River and out to canals and park ponds across the city, and our record lists the riverside at Bangkok, including Asiatique The Riverfront, ICONSIAM River Park and Wat Arun, among the main places people gather. Riverside temples host floating alongside the malls, and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration parks stay open late so that neighbourhood ponds can take their share of krathongs. The practical choice is between a big riverfront production, with stages and crowds, and a quieter park or temple closer to where you are staying. Both are the same festival.
Two Bangkok points are worth stating plainly. Sky lanterns are not part of the Bangkok celebration, so do not arrive expecting them. And the river itself is the venue, which means the best of the night is at the water's edge at dusk, when the first candles go out, rather than at any single show. Dinner cruises and riverside restaurants sell the view at a price. The floating itself is free.
The Wat Saket fair, with a warning label
For thirteen days around Loy Krathong, the grounds of Wat Saket, the Golden Mount temple, hold Bangkok's classic temple fair. The Golden Mount Temple Fair at Wat Saket 2026 opens, in the traditional telling, with a procession carrying a long red cloth up the 344 steps of the hill to wrap the chedi that holds a Buddha relic. Below, the grounds fill with food stalls, traditional games and fairground rides, and the fair period takes in Loy Krathong night itself.
The dates in our calendar, 17 to 29 November 2026, are labelled tentative, and the article keeps that label. They come from press reporting of the 2026 edition. When we checked on 27 October 2026, no listing from the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration or the temple confirming those dates had been published. The fair is a fixture of the season and the pattern is well established, but if the Golden Mount is the reason for a trip, check for the temple or city announcement closer to November before you fix your dates around it.
Chiang Mai: the city celebration
In Chiang Mai the public festival centres on the Ping River around Nawarat Bridge, on Tha Phae Gate and on the temples across the Old City. Krathongs go onto the Ping as they do onto the Chao Phraya in Bangkok, and around that river celebration the city adds its Lanna layer: lantern displays, parades and temple ceremonies. The city celebration is free, and for many visitors it is the better night of the two on offer in Chiang Mai, because it can be taken at walking pace, temple to temple and bridge to bridge, rather than to a programme timetable.
A short trip south, Lamphun runs its own lantern season in the run up to the night. The Festival of 100,000 Lanterns in Lamphun 2026 hangs tens of thousands of coloured Lanna lanterns through the old town and around Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, each carrying a name or a wish. Our dates for it, 1 to 24 November 2026, are also labelled tentative: Lamphun province and the temple had not confirmed the 2026 edition when we checked.
The CAD release: the ticketed version
The mass sky lantern release that most visitors picture happens at one venue: The CAD Cultural Center Lanna in Mae On, outside Chiang Mai. The authorised ticket agent publishes the 2026 festival for two nights, Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 November 2026, with capacity of around 23,000 people a night. A ticket covers shuttle transfers from pick up points in Chiang Mai, a Lanna buffet dinner, cultural activities, two sky lanterns and one krathong. The evening builds through a monk led ceremony to a synchronised lantern launch and fireworks at about 8.15 in the evening.
Three practical facts decide whether this is the right choice. Tickets are sold online only through authorised agents, and the venue sells no tickets on site, so a place cannot be settled on the day. The venue is out of the city, so the shuttle out and the shuttle back are part of the evening, not an extra. And the release is a single synchronised moment inside a long programmed evening of dinner and performances, which some visitors love and others find is more event than festival. The free city celebration and the ticketed release run on the same main night, 24 November, so for most trips it is one or the other that night, with the second CAD night, 25 November, as the way to do both.
The shape of the night, wherever you are
Plan backwards from dusk. Krathongs are sold at stalls near every stretch of water, so there is no need to carry one across the city. Eat early or late, because the riverside restaurants and the roads to the bridges are at their busiest in the early evening. Build slack into any arrival that day and check transport again closer to the date, because festival nights in both cities run on changed traffic patterns. If you are floating a krathong, stay a few minutes after you launch it. The sight that stays with people is not one float but the line of lights the river becomes by about eight o'clock.
What is confirmed, and what is still tentative
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Loy Krathong in Bangkok 2026 | Tuesday 24 November 2026 | Confirmed |
| Yi Peng and Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai 2026 | Tuesday 24 November 2026 | Confirmed |
| Chiang Mai CAD Khomloy Sky Lantern Festival 2026 | 24 and 25 November 2026 | Confirmed, ticketed |
| Golden Mount Temple Fair at Wat Saket 2026 | 17 to 29 November 2026 | Tentative, press reporting only |
| Festival of 100,000 Lanterns in Lamphun 2026 | 1 to 24 November 2026 | Tentative, following the annual pattern |
The full moon date itself, Tuesday 24 November 2026, is the firm ground: it is the date the Tourism Authority of Thailand festival programmes close on, and it is the main night in both cities. What remains open is the detail around it: the Wat Saket fair dates, the Lamphun season dates, and the city programmes of parades and ceremonies that Bangkok and Chiang Mai publish closer to November. We will update the records as those announcements land. More November listings are in festivals.
Sources: Tourism Authority of Thailand festival portal, thailandfestival.org, for the Loy Krathong date and programme frame; Thailand NOW, Loy Krathong festival page, for Chiang Mai; the authorised CAD ticket agent, chiangmaiyipengfestival.com, for the CAD festival dates, capacity, ticket contents and launch time; Time Out Thailand reporting for the Wat Saket fair dates, which remain unconfirmed by an official listing. Checked 27 October 2026. Programmes published closer to November take precedence over the patterns described here.
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