Yasothon Bun Bangfai Rocket FestivalDate : 5 - 9 May 2010
Place : Phaya Thaen Park, Mueang District, Yasothon
The underlying science behind the famous festival of rocket (the Bun Bang Fai), scheduled for 5 to 9 May, in the northeast town of Yasothon Province, is not to be found in a chemistry laboratory.
While the rockets owners pack as much as 25 k.g. of black powder into plastic or bamboo pipes to give their homemade missiles take off, the blueprints for this exceptionally noisy festival are traced in the mystical skies ruled by gods. Approaching rain clouds signal the start of the rice planting season in Thailand, but according to northeastern folklore the first raindrops fall only when the gods are in the mood for love. They need encouragement hence the importance of the Bun Bang Fai, or rocket festival, to stir the mythical community, resident in the heavens, to bless earth with fertility and rain.
