Patcharin Jongjai 2019/11/11 , ( 354 views)
Asthe full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar arrived on 11 November 2019, the International Relations Office (IR) organized the Loy Krathong Festival and Competition 2019at the IR Office at UBU.
This event aimed to provide an opportunity for Thai and international UBU staff and students to participate in an activity together. IR wanted the participants to intermingle and create new friends to strengthen the UBU community’s relationships. The team-based activity of the Krathong competition additionally helped international students learn more about Thai culture while also encouraging native Thai members to speak English. All participants were broken into groups and each group had to consist of at least one international staff or student. Our international participants came from the wonderful countries of Cameroon, the Philippines, Russia, Germany, Austria, and the United States. This made speaking English compulsory as the Thai staff or student had to explain the history of Loy Krathong, the steps to create a Krathong and what to do with the Krathong after assembling it to their fellow team members. Mrs. Pattata Mukkhun, a General Administrative Officer at the Student Development Office said “This event was very good for me to practice my English with native speakers. Due to my job responsibilities and limited time availability, I typically don’t have many opportunities to be involved in activitieswith our international community. I hope that the IR office organizes more events like this in the future and get me involved.”
This year, there was a total of more than 30 Thai and International staff and students who attended the event which made up five amazing teams. Within two hours, each team were to use natural ingredients such as banana leaves, banana trunks and flowers (marigolds and orchids) to construct their Krathongs. Afterward, the Krathongs were to be judged on its beauty, creativity, environmental friendliness and floatability by a panel of five judges. To test its floatability, participants were invited to walk to the 70 Rai Pond, where the university wide Loy Krathong Festival was to be held later that day, to showcase their Krathongs on the water. It was full of excitement to see if each team’s Krathong would float or drown, but every team’s Krathong ended up being able to float! The suspense was well worth the wait and teams were all successful in their creations. To close the event, the judges calculated their final scores up to 100 points and named the first, second and third place winners.
IR office sincerely expresses thanks to all participants for joining the event. We are looking forward to welcoming even more UBU members in further IR events.
Written by: Jarinda Boonjan
English revised by: Thaviny Shaipitisiri
Original Thai version by: Therdphoom Thongin
Photos by: Therdphoom Thongin