Traditional Rocket Festival in Laos 2008

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bounbangfai/

This Festival is one of the twelve traditional festivals celebrated in
Laos. It is usually held during the 6th lunar month, at the beginning
of the rainy season (usually in May or early June) to coincide with
the planting season. The annual Rocket Festival is held to beseech the
God of Rain, called ‘Phraya Thaen,’ to have the rains arrive in a
timely fashion for cultivation. The Rocket Festival is considered by
the Lao people to be a joyful and fun-filled celebration.

The Festival includes a procession of groups of villagers carrying
rockets while singing in a ‘call and response’ style. Their songs are
poetic in nature and use sexual themes that symbolize fertility. The
humor used in the songs brings laughter to the spectators. The songs
symbolize the relationships between heaven and earth as well as
between men and women. The songs celebrate the forces of procreation
and the abundance of life. They all relate to the need for the annual
rains to fall at the proper times to support the growth of the yearly
crops.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bounbangfai/2592418040/

thanks for the pics, they were joyful. you made me want to live
there....smile!

looks like fun. The country side looks beautiful. Maybe one day I
will be allowed to buy something like that.

On Jun 19, 1:29 pm, Cat hotmail.com> wrote:

cat remember i read your post longtime ago that you will not set
your foot in laos again , now you change your mind? lui va thao lai
leoluim na luim lung .

On Jun 19, 2:53 am, DKJ gmail.com> wrote:

Cat & B2BH,

You are welcome any time
Decision is yours

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2474534407_bc44d12800_o.jpg

dkj

On Jun 20, 5:38 am, DKJ gmail.com> wrote:

very traditionally yours;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPRNzuf7Ttc&feature=related

Khondee,

I will probably never set my foot in Laos again. You might still be
correct there. However I do wish that the policies of Laos will
change so that I can set my foot there one day. I would like to go
back as a citizen of Laos because I was born there and seven
generation before me were born there. At the current time I don't
think the current policies will allow that.

The questions remains, should the policies of Laos punish all of those
who left Laos by taking away their citizenship due to civil war, even
those who left as children who had no part in that war. If that is
still the case than I don't think I'll be going there anytime soon.
But I could still be hopeful even it's not realistic right now. Maybe
one day everything will be FORGIVEN and all Laotian can return home as
citizens of Laos if they want to.