A Rocket Festival (Thai: ประเพณีบุญบั้งไฟ Prapheni Bun Bang Fai) is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced throughout much of northeast Thailand and Laos, by numerous villages and municipalities near the beginning of the rainy season. Celebrations typically include preliminary music and dance performances, competive processions of floats, dancers and musicians on the second day, and culminating on the third day in competive firings of home-made rockets. Local participants and sponsors use the occasion to enhance their social prestige, as is customary in traditional Buddhist folk festivals throughout Southeast Asia. See also Gift culture
Today, it is not so likely for the villages to stage "Bun Bang Fai" more elaborate than highly promoted Yasothon's. However, even villages may have themed floats conveying government messages, as Keys advises. 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.
