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| Southeast Asia |
| Thailand: The power of a p*nis-shaped rocket |
| 2010-06-21 |
| YASOTHON, Thailand -- For a long half-minute, there was no sky. Only rolling smoke, left behind by a 48-foot homemade rocket screaming into the stratosphere, high above the fields in northeast Thailand. "Oh, it's ascending gorgeously!" Beyond the ash cloud, a man with a megaphone provided color commentary in upcountry dialect. Rockets, danger, whiskey, lust and superstition: there is almost too much to love about the "Rocket Festival" in Thailand's rural Yasothon province. For more than a millennium, farmers in this region's baking flatlands have staged fertility rites to welcome May's seasonal rains. But sometime after the introduction of gunpowder, people living in modern-day Thailand (and Laos) gained the ability to fire symbolic phalluses -- rockets -- into the clouds. According to superstition, an astral conception of sorts takes place in the sky, unleashing showers that loosen parched soil so that crop planting can commence. Today, the mock phalluses are as big as 55 feet long, fashioned from sturdy PVC pipe and packed with more than 130 kilos of gunpowder. "We use a big compressor to push it all in," said Pon Wannapongse, a day laborer, his cheeks charred black with ash. "It's fun. Me and these guys, we get together in my backyard and make rockets all night." No doubt with a plentiful supply of rice wine Most likely lao khao "whiskey". This festival's thrills, however, run much deeper than amateur rocketry. Just as Catholics enjoy a gluttonous "Fat Tuesday" before Lent's seasonal fasting, rural Thais are allowed to briefly go wild before the rains come and the months of rice-planting toil begin. Men joyfully parade the streets with comically huge wooden phalluses, aiming them at revelers for laughs. This amnesty period for various indiscretions frees Thais from a year-round expectation of propriety. Though not perfectly followed, the Thai ideal calls for mannered men and virtuous women. The olden fertility rites -- and today's raucous rocket festival -- have long functioned as a much-needed release valve. And those who want glory will craft gigantic rockets. On the festival's last day, tens of thousands gather in a scrubby field for the main event: a face-off between men vying to launch the most magnificent rocket. Points are scored for height, distance traveled and eye-catching smoke trails, which trace cartoonish white spirals in the sky. No wonders the Muslims get pissed - They have to blow themselves up to make up for such fun. |
| Posted by:CrazyFool |
| #1 This sounds like great fun. I wonder how you say "Here, hold my beer" in Thai? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-06-21 23:11 |