Yi Peng is a festival unique to northern Thailand and closely linked with the ancient Lanna kingdom. On Yi Peng Day (the night of the full moon for Loy Krathong) lanterns or candles are also lit and placed at entrances to shops, homes and temples. The act of making the lanterns or donating them to temples is one way of making merit and the light of a lantern is significant in Buddhist culture because it represents the moving away from darkness into a brighter future.