Phi Ta Khon Ghost Festival (22-24 June)


images from Thai Travel blogs - permission requested.
This is certainly a festival that needs a camera - looks wonderful but is too far for me to make a day trip it is the North Eastern part of Thailand and an Issan Festival.

As I read Richard's Travel Blog about Thailand I am fascinated that so much goes on here and sometimes happy that it is  not destroyed by the West and the forcing of their values onto another society.

Okay there are some strange images of sexual content and what we see has male dominance over the female BUT if you do not want to read about it then don't.

Please make your own mind up.

I would go to have a look because the colours look wonderful. Click here for Richard's report from 2011.

"One of the most unique and colourful festivals in Thailand is Phi Ta Khon that takes place every year in Dansai in Loei Province. It is sometimes translated into English as the Ghost Festival as many people wear ghost masks during the processions. Really the festival is called Bun Luang which is a combination of two different festivals. These are Bun Phra Wet and Bun Bang Fai. The first is the continuous listening of thirteen sermons. The other involves the firing of rockets to ask for sufficient rain"

The festival continues in this vein with more different things happening...



This looks like a very strange festival which must be witnessed - maybe another time?

As the most well-known event of Loei province in the Northeastern Thailand, Phi Ta Khon is the ultimate yearly celebration.  The Thailand Ghost Festival is well regarded as an annual event where revelers put on rather hilarious, yet ghostly, masks made of bamboo and wicker and join in the Ghost parade. Regarded as a rain-making ceremony, this spooky festivity is held annually in the beginning of rainy season. This year the event will be held on 22-24 June at Dan Sai District of Loei province. Unlike Halloween, the ghosts and poltergeists in Phi Ta Khon seek their fun under full daylight.