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Learn how to sing the Loy Krathong Song

AjarnPasa

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If you happen to be travelling in Thailand during November then you should be lucky enough to take part in one of the country’s principal annual celebrations, Loy Krathong. This year it is on Sunday 21 November.

A Krathong, or กระทง grà-tong, is an ornate arrangement of flowers, incense, candles and banana leaves. Each November full moon people flock to the river banks (or indeed any convenient body of water) to float [or loy ลอย] these krathongs. It is essentially a merit making exercise where people come to ขอโทษแม่น้ำ [kŏr tôht mâe náam], which means to apologise to the river for using her throughout the year.

Like any good celebration there is a song to go with it, which you’ll definitely hear if you get out and about on the day.

The point of this post is to teach you the words to this song so you can join in and sing along when you hear it.

Even if you just get the chorus, you will really impress your Thai friends if you can sing along.

Below is a video of the song. Have a listen then look at the words.

Here are the lyrics in Thai and with transcriptions

วัน เพ็ญ เดือน สิบสอง wan pen deuan sìp sŏng

น้ำ ก็ นอง เต็ม ตลิ่ง náam gôr nong dtem dtà-lìng

เรา ทั้ง หลาย ชาย หญิง สนุก กัน จริง วัน ลอย กระทง rao táng lăai chaai yĭng sà-nùk gan jing wan loy grà-tong

ลอย ลอย กระทง, ลอย ลอย กระทง loy loy loy grà-tong, loy loy loy grà-tong

ลอย ลอย กระทง กัน แล้ว ขอ เชิญ น้อง แก้ว ออก มา รำวง loy grà-tong gan láew kŏr chern nóng gâew òk maa ram wong

รำวง วัน ลอย กระทง, รำวง วัน ลอย กระทง ram wong wan loy grà-tong, ram wong wan loy grà-tong

บุญ จะ ส่ง ให้ เรา สุข ใจ, บุญ จะ ส่ง ให้ เรา สุข ใจ bun jà sòng hâi rao sùk jai, bun jà sòng hâi rao sùk jai

The words translate more or less as follows:

On the fulll-moon of the twelfth month

The water is overflowing at the riverbanks

All we men and women are really having fun on Loy Krathong day

Loy Loy Krathong, Loy Loy Krathong

Floating the Krathong together, sweetheart please come out to dance

Dancing on Loy Krathong Day, Dancing on Loy Krathong Day

Making merit will make us happy, Making merit will make us happy

Language notes:

น้อง แก้ว nóng gâew literally means Miss Crystal but is used as a kind of cutesy nickname for a sweetheart or similar.

เพ็ญ pen is an old word of Kmer origins which means full moon.

Two fun literal translations are ขอโทษ kŏr tôht, which literally means I request to be punished. Get this wrong and say ขอทอด kŏr tôt and you are requesting to be deep-fried.

แม่น้ำ mâe náam literally means mother water, which is kind of nice.

ขอให้สนุกวันลอยกระทง kŏr hâi sà-nùk wan loy grà-tong – Have fun on Loy Krathong Day

If you liked this, you'll love our blog. Check out short, timely lessons in Thai and follow us on Twitter @AjarnPasa

If you have any questions or suggestions for topics for future lessons on Travelfish, feel free to leave a comment.

See you next time

@AjarnPasa

#1 Posted: 11/11/2010 - 08:36

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svendj

tuk tuk driver
Posts: 180

ha nice one. As I'm speaking Thai in a very comfortable way I never taught about it to learn this song. Probably will take this one up the next time I'll be in Thailand in November.
Singing Thai songs does impress the locals a lot. You can find some good lyrics on E-thai music (don't know the exact site, just google it). Try to learn some from Sek Loso: almost everybody know their songs like Rao Lei Nai and Om Pra Ma Poot.

Good post for another song, cheers!

#2 Posted: 11/11/2010 - 16:40
Donayanni12

newbie
Posts: 3
Located in:

Thanks for the post , interested to learn Thai language.

#3 Posted: 26/12/2011 - 13:26
theChosenOne

backpacker
Posts: 12

This is cool. Thanks for including the Thai and the translation.

#4 Posted: 26/3/2012 - 23:44