The dates are set. Loy Krathong falls on 24 November 2026, and Chiang Mai's Yi Peng lantern festival runs alongside it on 24–25 November.
Why the date moves every year
Loy Krathong follows the lunar calendar, not the Gregorian one: it falls on the evening of the full moon of the twelfth month of the Thai lunar calendar. That is why it drifts between late October and late November from year to year, and why you cannot plan it off last year's dates.
Two festivals, not one
They are commonly lumped together, but they are distinct traditions that happen to coincide in Chiang Mai:
- Loy Krathong is national. You float a krathong — a small decorated raft — on a river, canal or lake. Bangkok, Sukhothai and Ayutthaya all have significant celebrations.
- Yi Peng is a northern Lanna tradition centred on Chiang Mai, and it is the one with the sky lanterns.
Sukhothai deserves a specific mention: the festival is staged in the Historical Park among the ruins, which is a very different experience from a city riverside.
Booking reality check
Chiang Mai accommodation for Yi Peng sells out months ahead and prices rise sharply for those two nights. Flights into Chiang Mai follow the same pattern. If those dates matter to you, book accommodation and internal transport now and leave the detailed plans for later.
One thing worth knowing before you spend money: the large mass sky-lantern releases marketed to visitors are ticketed commercial events, usually held outside the city and priced accordingly. They are not the same thing as the free public celebrations in Chiang Mai itself. Read carefully what a ticket actually includes before booking.
Choose a place and allow an evening
Use the Loy Krathong guide to compare riverside celebrations and the Yi Peng guide for Chiang Mai. In Sukhothai, the Historical Park announcement gives a festival window of 15-24 November 2026. That is a multi-day local programme rather than a claim that every Loy Krathong celebration follows the same schedule. Check the particular venue before choosing your overnight stops.
Plan to reach your chosen celebration with time to find the public entrance, identify the return journey and read the local programme. For a ticketed lantern event, use the arrival and transfer times on your own booking; a city celebration has a separate timetable. Do not infer a start time from a photograph of lanterns after dark. If exact procession or release times are not yet published by the organiser, keep the evening flexible instead of arranging a tight onward connection.
Source: Thailand Starts Here — Loy Krathong and Yi Peng in Chiang Mai, 2026 (2026-04-09); TAT Newsroom — Thailand events and festivals (publication date not stated); Fine Arts Department, Sukhothai Historical Park — Sukhothai Loy Krathong and Candle Festival 2026 (publication date not stated).
Related reading
More Thailand travel news
Plan around a festival
Festival guides for the events named in this article — dates, how to get there and what to expect.
- Loy Krathong — Nationwide · November
On the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, Thailand sets millions of candle-lit baskets adrift on its rivers, canals a - Yi Peng Lantern Festival — Chiang Mai · November
The Lanna sky lantern festival in Chiang Mai — the source of Thailand's most famous photograph, and the one most often m
Check festivals against your travel dates · All Thai festivals by month
Sources
- Loy Krathong and Yi Peng in Chiang Mai, 2026 — Thailand Starts Here
- Thailand events and festivals — TAT Newsroom
- Sukhothai Loy Krathong and Candle Festival 2026 — Fine Arts Department, Sukhothai Historical Park