Bun Bang Fai Rocket Festival

The Rocket Festival, or Prapheni Bun Bang Fai is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced by ethnic Lao people at the beginning of the wet season in various villages and municipalities in Northeastern Thailand and Laos. The festivities typically include music and dance performances, competitive processions of floats, dancers and musicians on the second day, and culminating on the third day with the competitive firing of homemade rockets. Local participants and sponsors take advantage of the occasion to enhance their social prestige, as is customary in traditional Buddhist folk festivals throughout Southeast Asia.

Source: Wikipedia | znews.vn | tourismthailand.org | laoair.com.vn | vietnamplus.vn

Bun Bang Fai is celebrated in all provinces across Laos, but the most popular one used to be held along the bank of the Mekong river in the capital, Vientiane. However, because of considerable urbanization in recent decades and for safety measures, the festivals are now celebrated in nearby villages, including Naxon, Natham, Thongmang, Ban Kern, and Pakkagnoung. As these festivals are celebrated at varying dates, they each attract a large crowd from the capital Vientiane.

The festival in Thailand also includes special programs and specific local patterns like Bang Fai (Parade dance) and a Beautiful Bang Fai float such as Yasothon on the third weekend of May, and continues Suwannaphum District, Roi Et on the first weekend of June, Phanom Phrai District Roi Et during the full moon of the seventh month in Lunar year's calendar each year. The Bang Fai festival is not only found in Isan or Northeasthern Thailand and North Thailand and Laos, but also in Amphoe Sukhirin, Narathiwat.

Isan is Thailand's largest region, on the Khorat Plateau, bordered by the Mekong River (along the Laos–Thailand border) to the north and east, by Cambodia to the southeast and the Sankamphaeng Range south of Nakhon Ratchasima. To the west it is separated from northern and central Thailand by the Phetchabun Mountains.

Northeastern Region: Amnat Charoen, Buriram, Chaiyaphum, Kalasin, Khon Kaen, Loei, Maha Sarakham, Mukdahan, Nakhon Phanom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nongbua Lamphu, Nong Khai, Roi Et, Sakon Nakhon, Sisaket, Surin, Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Yasothon, Bueng Kan. Tại vùng Isan không có bờ biển cho nên không có bãi biển để thu hút du khách. Tuy nhiên Isaan lại là một khu vực đa văn hóa nơi các nền văn hóa Lào, Campuchia và Thái Lan pha trộn nhau, và có một lịch sử phong phú.

Villages no longer stage «Bun Bang Fai» festivals on the scale of Yasothon's famous event. However, villages may have floats conveying government messages. They may also include fairs. In recent years the Tourism Authority of Thailand has helped promote these events, particularly the festivals in the Thai provinces of Nong Khai and Yasothon, the latter boasting the largest and most elaborate of these festivals. The Bun bang fai celebration in the past and up till now are not only in Yasothorn, but also in many other provinces in Isan, such as Roi Et, Kalasin, Srisaket, Mahasarakham and Udon Thani. In Suwannaphum of Roi Et Province is one of the most magnificent and beautiful of Thailand's Bang Fai parades that is called «Bang fai eh» or «Bangfai ko» — Bang Fai Parade are decorated in the form of Thai traditional artwork or Line Thai.

Bun Bang Fai in Laos

Bun Bang Fai is held over the sixth Lunar month, usually around May and June, coinciding with the plantation and the beginning of the rainy seasons. Several months before the festival, an organizing committee is formed in each future host village to discuss about all aspects of the festival, including inviting other villages, establishing rules and safety measures and setting criteria and prizes for the best rockets. Weeks before the festival, bamboo rockets are built and decorated by monks and villagers. They vary in size from small to very large rockets that hold gunpowder from less than 12 kilograms to 120 kilograms.

At each Boun Bang Fai there are prizes given to the homemade bamboo rocket that goes the highest. Other prizes may be given to teams that are the most entertaining or spirited and the best decorated rocket. If a team’s rocket doesn’t explode and falls back to the ground, they are covered in mud and/or made to drink a muddy rice whiskey drink. Another tradition at many rocket festivals is for men to dress as women and parade around with giant wooden phalluses in order to anger the gods into “punishing” them with rain. [explore-laos.com]

The Boun BangFai Festival, also known as the Rain Festival or the Ascension Fireworks Festival, is one of the oldest, funnest and biggest traditional festivals of the year of the people of the country of Million Elephants.

Thiên Xuân Travel – Live your travel dreams!

Park 2, 208 Nguyen Huu Canh Street, Ward 22,
Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
📨 booking@thienxuantravel.com
☎️ +84 888 890 898 — 0938 558 228

Office in the United States
14114 Beech Glen Dr, Houston, TX 77083
☎️ +1 (281) 906-2744

Your opinion counts!