festival

Buddhist Lent Day, a period of three lunar months during the rainy season when monks are required to remain in one wat and when many laypersons adopt more ascetic practices. In Thailand, it has long been customary for men to be ordained temporarily as novices or monks for a lenten period.During the annual three-month Rains Retreat (Phasa in Thai; vassa in Pali), Buddhist monks are committed to remaining in their monasteries overnight. The tradition predates Buddhism. In ancient India, all holy months of the annual rainy season in permanent dwellings. They avoided unnecessary travel during the period when crops were still new for fear they might accidentally tread on young plants.In deference to popular opinion, the Buddha decreed that his follows should also abide by this ancient tradition. This initiated a move away from an itinerant life to a more or less settled existence as the advantages of communal living became apparent. Similar monasteries were founded in other countries where Buddhism became established Phansa represents a time of renewed spiritual vigor. The monk meditates more, studies more and teaches more. Laymen, too, traditionally, endeavor to be more conscientious, perhap abstaining from liquor and cigarettes and giving extra financial and physical support to their local monasteries. Phansa is also customarily the season for temporary ordinations. Young men enter the monkhood for spiritual training, to gain merit for themselves and their parents, and to conform to the widespread feeling that a man who has been a monk cannot be considered a mature adult In some areas, a man who has never been a mork is avoided by marriageabe girls, who regard him as khon dip or and 'unrire person'.The Buddhist ordination is a mixture of religious solemnity, merit-making and boisterous celebration reflecting a Thai belief that the three most important events of a man's life are this birth, his ordination and his marriage. The ordination ritual itself evolved over 2,500 years ago during the Buddha's life as the Sangha (the Buddhist monastic order) took from and has changed little to this day. Socially, the ordination is something in which the entire village participates. Village monks comprise the presiding chapter chapter and preceptors. Villagers gain merit by accompanying the tonsured, white robed candidate for monkhood (known as the nak in a colorful procession to the monastery. Small children join the procession which is often marked by joyous dancing and the heady throb of long drums.

Lhai Ruahfai festival is an age-old tradition of northeastern people. It is often held after the Buddhist Lent from the fifteenth day of the waxing moon to the first day of the waning moon of the eleventh lunar month. This festival has been maintained in Srisakate. Sakon Nakhon, Nhongkhai, Loei, Ubonratchathani and, most splendidly, in Nakhon Phanom province.The people in rural areas of Nakhon Phanom usually group together in "Khum" or neighbourhoods and name their "Khum" after the name of the local temple, for example "Khum Wat Tai", or "Khum Wat Nua." The Khum members will join in organising post-Lent religious festivals which include boat racing, a wax castle parade and Lhai Ruahfai.Ruahfai or "Huahfai" in northeastern dialect, is a 10-12 metre long barge made from carved banana tree trunks or bamboo. The people place on the barge items of food, desserts or anything they wish to donate for charity. The barge is exquisitely decorated with flowers, candles, incense sticks and, most importantly, the lamps and torches which are lit before floating the barge.The basic belief behind this festival may be similar to that of Loy Kratong festival which invokes worship of the Lord Buddha's footprints on the sandy beach of Nammahanathi river and worship of the Goddess of the river, or the mystic Naga, which inhabits the Mekong. Since 1980 Lhai Ruahfai has become a grand festival in Nakhon Phanom province marking the beginning of the festive season of the coming winter.Normally, the illuminated boat procession is celebrated by I-San (Thailand’s Northeast region) people on the 15th day of the waxing moon to the 1st day of the waning moon in the 11th Thai lunar month, which is normally a month earlier than the normal calendar month. In Nakhon Phanom, villagers will divide up in to groups called ‘Khum’ and name their Khums after the name of the nearest temple. For example, villagers who live near Wat Klang Temple will name their group as ‘Khum Wat Klang’. The purpose for folks to group together is to form boat races, the wax castle competition and the illuminated boat procession among themselves.The illuminated boat locally called ‘Reua Fai’, which literally means fire boat, is made of a 10-12 meter banana tree trunk filled with assorted offerings and elaborately adorn with flowers, incense sticks, candles and lanterns. The flickering light from candles and lanterns together will make the boats beautifully illuminated in the river under the waxing moon