On May 14 and 15, a great spectacle will take place in the Yasothon province: the Bun Bangfai Raket festival. During this festival, all kinds of homemade rockets are fired to honor Phaya Thaen – the God of rain – and thus ask for enough rain and fertile soil for the coming season. 

The celebration of the start of the rainy season includes several days of music and dance performances, parades of floats, and concludes with the firing of home-made rockets. This is a kind of competition in which the one with the most beautiful/biggest rocket receives a lot of admiration.

Local participants and sponsors of this occasion use this festivity to enhance or raise their social prestige, a common practice in many traditional Buddhist folk festivals in Southeast Asia.

Video: Bamboo Rocket festival

Below you can see spectacular images of a Rocket festival. This is not without danger, as the video shows:

3 comments on “Agenda: Bun Bangfai rocket festival on May 14 + 15”

  1. Piloe says up

    When a rocket fails hopelessly, its creators are rolled in the mud as punishment. Young people go crazy and throw themselves in the mud. So a mud fight, similar to Songkran, but not with water.

  2. Simon Borger says up

    It is to be hoped that this year the rain gods will do their best.

  3. Erwin Fleur says up

    Dear everyone,

    I have experienced this festival several times and every time it is
    again very nice.
    Here too there are all kinds of tents with food, drinks, etc.
    What actually goes without saying is that you can of course gamble
    on how high the rocket will go and how long it will take to get back down.

    The people themselves usually spend weeks trying to put together such a rocket and
    who spends the most money on making it as big as possible.

    Of course you can also sponsor or buy such a rocket yourself, from small to large.
    If you have the chance to experience it, I would definitely recommend it.

    Yours faithfully,

    Erwin


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