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| Best Of South East Asia Home » Thailand » Thai Festivals » Rocket Festival |
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Rocket Festival |
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The Rocket Festival celebration consists of three whole days of musical and dance functions, marches, and a minimum of one competitive round of rockets made at home. During the last few years, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has taken on the responsibility of promoting these events, mainly the festivals, that are held in the Thai regions of Nong Khai and Yasothon. Yasothon witnesses the biggest and the most grand of these Thai festivals.
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The local participants as well as sponsors take the occasion to foster their social prestige, which is prevalent in the major parts of the traditional Buddhist festivals celebrated all through Southeast Asian region.
Bang Fai:
Bang Fai, as the rockets are named, are believed to be launched in order to welcome the rains. However, another version of the myth is that the rains are responsible for bringing on the rockets. Thus, there are two different versions of the myth. Jaruat is the name given to these rockets, that are used as missiles or weapons. The Bang Fai rockets are huge bottle rockets, that are run on black-powder. There are even the Tiny Bottle rockets, that are so named as they are usually launched from a bottle. Bang Fai or Bong Fai, the 'bottle' is known as a bong while a part of the bamboo stalk is used as a vessel to launch the rockets.
The origin of the age-old rocket festival tradition is being studied by scholars in order to ascertain its link to the long background of rocketry in the whole of the East. The Rocket Festival also bears significance in terms of the socio-political growth of the Southeast Asian states in the post-colonial era.
Bang Fai is available in a number of different sizes and shapes. The small rockets are known as Bang Fai Noi. The largest Bang Fai, is the the Lan, which may be excessively huge and also very costly and fatal. The Bang Fai Lan are nine meters in length and are powered with a fuel of 120 kg of black powder.
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