A Rocket Festival is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced by Ethnic Lao people throughout much of northeast Thailand and Laos, by numerous villages and municipalities near the beginning of the rainy season.

A Rocket Festival is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced by Ethnic Lao people 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, competitive processions of floats, dancers and musicians on the second day, and culminating on the third day in competitive 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.

Originally the rockets were made out of natural materials, but these days, they are slightly more sophisticated. They are built specifically for the Thailand rocket festival and are packed with several kilos of gunpowder. Some weigh as much as 350 pounds now, though most Bun Bang Fai rockets fit into the 100 kilo (220 pound) range.

To make the Thailand rocket festival more fun, various competitions for the longest flight time or the best flight/landing combo are held. They are all conducted with the undying spirit of 'sanook'. If your rocket does not make a perfect flight you may get muddy... but most just jump in the mud themselves...

Legend has it that once the rain god named Vassakan loved to be worshipped with fire. And the Thailand rocket festival rockets produce FIRE. The townspeople created the 'Bun Bang Fai' to send to into space, where the gods reside. They believed that the gods would hear their launches and bless them with plentiful rain for rice cultivation.