Thai tourists have begun their annual pilgrimage to the Northeast of Thailand for the mystical Naga Fireball Festival which is held at the end of Buddhist Lent.
It is very busy on the road from Udon Thani to Nong Khai. Anuchit Sakulku, director of the Nong Khai Tourism Business Association, says that more than 90 percent of all hotel rooms are fully booked. The Naga Fireballs Festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday this weekend.
Ban Fai Payana
The Naga Fireballs Festival has its origins in old sagas. Where the Lao river Nam Ngum flows into the Mekong not far from Nong Khai in Thailand, the local population thinks that there is a large Naga palace under the river. The mystery surrounding the Naga takes on great shape because every year on the 15th day of the 11th month (Thai and Laotian lunar calendar) a miraculous event takes place. On this day in the Nong Khai and Pak-Ngeum provinces of Isan, red fireballs the size of eggs are shot into the air. These balls come from the Mekong River and are visible to everyone.
Hundreds of thousands of people gather for this. They even come from afar to watch the mysterious spectacle from the benches and picnic areas: the Ban Fai Payana. Only one night, or rather evening, just after sunset you will see this spectacle in honor of Buddha and the end of the Buddhist spring (Vassa). Both the local Thai and the Lao claim that this is a natural occurrence. The fireballs are spat by a Naga who wants to emphasize that the water and the rivers should be honored.
Fireballs
Skeptics claim that the fireballs are shot into the air by humans. This could be plausible, but there are years when no or hardly any fireballs can be seen. Given the size and importance of the Ban Fai Payana you would expect that if there are people responsible for it.
Scientists say there may be a connection to organic sludge from the river. At the end of the rainy season, when the water is very high, a lot of this is carried along. This sludge, in combination with the sun, which also shines again at the end of the rainy season, would produce a kind of gas that is flammable. How the luminous spheres that rise to great heights arise from this is still a mystery.
Also read my story and especially the reactions about this phenomenon
https://www.thailandblog.nl/cultuur/de-naga-vuurbollen
So, true or false?
Went to Rattanawapee with the whole family yesterday. After a long search for a parking space and shuffling to the banks of the Mekong, our efforts were rewarded.
In about 30 minutes we saw between 10 and 15 times red balls (between 1 and 5) emerge from the water of the Mekong and shoot up in a different direction each time, to the loud cheers of thousands of Thais.
Whether it was a natural phenomenon or whether the technique helped a little I could not judge, but my wife told me that they had come to see fireballs in vain for the previous 3 years.
So it is true that fireballs come out of the water.