Rocket Festival
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The Rocket Festival (Thai บุญบั้งไฟ Bun Bungfai) is an ancient Lao festival dating to prehistoric times. According to Lloyd H. Cornett, Jr., it is significant in the history of rocketry. It continues to take place in a number of locations both in Isan, Thailand and in Laos, but it is most vigorously and most famously celebrated in Isan's Yasothon province. It is held in May, in the sixth lunar month. Originating in pre-Buddhist times, it is a fertility rite held to celebrate and to encourage the coming of the rainy season. As such, it is the most sexual and bawdy festival in Lao culture. Coming immediately prior to the planting season, the festival also offers a last chance to relax before this work gets underway.
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As of 2005, the Yasothon version of the festival spread over three days in the middle of May. After preliminary events on Friday (Wan Sook Dip), on Saturday the home-made, richly-decorated bamboo rockets are paraded through the town. They can be nine metres long and carry up to 120 kg of gunpowder. A fair is held on Saturday evening, involving cross-dressing and large quantities of alcohol. The rockets are launched on the Sunday. The winners of the competition are those whose rocket flies the longest, while those whose rockets misfire are covered with mud. Smutty humour is widespread.
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References
- Gray, Paul and Ridout, Lucy. Rough Guide to Thailand. Rough Guides, 2004. ISBN 1843532735.
- Tourist Authority of Thailand (http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/2488.asp)
External links
- Bang Fai at the Smithsonian (http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/artifacts/RM-BounBangFai.htm)