Superstitious Thais fire huge homemade rockets into the sky praying for rain
Superstitious locals fired huge homemade rockets into the sky to pray for rain during a drought in Thailand.
Footage shows the men sticking black powder inside the DIY fireworks made from plastic pipes and bamboo in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand on May 3.
Aside from the fireworks, the locals also prepared a feast for the Gods which included a boiled pig head, juices, and some liquor.
The tradition was postponed for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic but the locals decided to push through with it this year to ask the Gods ‘to bring back everything to normal.’ The region has been suffering regular droughts in recent years due to lack of rain.
Suton Thongdeenok, 63, who participated in the ritual said they have been doing it for 50 years so they could not delay it more.
He said: ‘Rice farming starts in May so we launched rockets into the sky to call the deities to come to help us have healthy crops.
‘We have been doing this for more than 50 years now but the pandemic forced us to skip the tradition and now we decided it’s high time we do it again.’ The event was held in a field far from the community to prevent fire accidents caused by rockets that could fall and ignite structures.
The participants who built the rockets fired them up as they prayed for more rain during the summer season and end the pandemic.
Farmer Suton added that this year’s event was smaller and less festive as there were only a few who joined them but he hoped that next year would be better.
He said: ‘This year there were only a handful of us who created rockets and fired them into the sky.
I hope next year would be a better time for all of us.’