Rocket Festival – Journeys Within Tour Company

Southeast Asia 2011: Thailand Festivals and Events

Posted by Andrea on February 17, 2011 (Updated: 2016-09-15) | 1 Comment

When we asked Jaeb what festivals she was looking forward to, she gave us some of her favorites. Plan a trip to participate in one this year!

Songkran Festival celebrates the traditional Thai New Year, and it is celebrated from April 13-15th. Do not even bother trying to stay dry, as the main way to celebrate this festival is by throwing water on anyone and everyone. Probably because it is during the hottest time of the year!

Loy Krathong Festival: In Thai “Loy” means to float and “Krathong” means a circular object with decoration of banana leaves, flowers, a candle and incense sticks. The floating of a Krathong signifies floating away ill fortune as well as expressing apologies to Khongkha or Ganga, the River Goddess. This year the festival is on November 10th.

Rocket Festival in Yasothorn: The festival’s origins lie in a custom of firing rockets into the sky at the start of the rice-growing season to remind King of the sky, to send promised rain. The festival now takes the form of a competition to see whose rocket will stay aloft for the longest time. It is celebrated May 11th-15th.

International Wax Sculpture Festival in Ubon Ratchathani: The candle festival is unique to Ubon Ratchathani province and the customs and traditions related to this Buddhist festival have been diligently preserved by local communities. You can visit the candle and sculpture making communities and meet some of the artists before the grand procession at the end of the month showing off all of the works of art. This festival runs from July 1-31st.

wax carving — Artists work all month to carve their wax sculptures

Jumbo Banquet at Nakorn Phathom. There are the buffets to be thankful for the elephants for their hard work and there is the elephant theme show and also jumbo queen contest. – May 1st

elephant buffet — Elephants enjoying their buffet of fruits and vegetables

Rocket Festival, a fun and meaningful Thai tradition

Posted by April on June 25, 2008 (Updated: 2011-02-10) | Leave a comment

The rocket festival is a uniquely-Thai celebration. It takes place annually over 2 days in May in a region called Yasothon in Isaan – the northeast of Thailand. This is an ancient tradition where rockets are fired into the sky as offerings to the gods in hope that there will be plenty of rain during the coming rice planting season. Nowadays, there is also a competition between neighboring villages as to who can build the rocket that stays in the air the longest and the festival is also associated with a lot of fun!

The rockets are fired into the sky from a wooden structure that acts as a launch pad. The rockets themselves are huge – it takes 5 or 6 men to carry one and secure it. The thrill and excitement you feel watching them fire into the sky is worth the journey alone! If any rocket fails to ignite then the team who built it is carried to the nearest mud pool and thrown in as ‘punishment’, but it’s all in good spirits.

There’s also a parade dancing competition and each village enters as a team. Each team performs a dance to the sound of their village musical band and around 50 dancers from 3 generations take part so everyone in the community is involved. The dancers follow a route and make 4 to 5 stops along the way to perform the dance to a different set of judges. At the final stop the band join in the dancing and everyone goes a little crazy – including the crowd! It’s great fun to watch and listen and be a part of the festival. If you’re ever in Thailand around this time then I’d recommend you make the trip.

Hope you enjoy the photos and videos!

Jeab.

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