Get Ready for the Rocket Festival

Boun Bang Fai (Rocket Festival) is held from early to mid-May, depending on the locale, to pray for rain and to celebrate fertility. In the morning, villagers perform rituals at their local temples, and then in the afternoon, they gather in the fields on the outskirts of villages and towns to launch their self-made rockets.

Different communities compete for the best decorated and the highest travelling rocket. Men disguised as women perform acts using wooden phalli to anger the gods. As revenge, the gods are expected to send thunderstorms.

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