English Presentation Subject : English for Tourism The Lai Rua Fai Festival Present to Mrs. Jantana Khamanukul Kanchananukroh School

Every year, culminating on the full moon in October, the northeastern (Isan) provinces of Thailand celebrate the Lai Rua Fai (fireboat) Festival, by launching magnificently crafted, illuminated boats and rafts on rivers. Nowhere is the event more spectacular than in Nakorn Phanom.

Marking the end of Buddhist Lent, the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the harvest, this festival's origins are Animist, Hindu and Buddhist. In Pre-Buddha India, a similar festival was held to revere and propitiate the Lord of Nagas, a mystical serpent- being whose realm was that of the rivers. It was believed that Nagas had the power to create or withhold the life-giving rains.

Buddhism in Thailand is mixed with many ancient animist beliefs and the worship of spirits. In the Lai Rua Fai Festival four major spirits are invoked to bless the life giving water and to ask for a beautiful harvest.

These spirits are: Mae–the mother who gives us life; Mae Toranee– Mother Earth; Mae Po Sope–Mother of the rice; and the most important one, Phra Mae Nam Khong Kha-the God-mother of the waters, who lives in and protects every river. he festival is also a way to ask forgiveness from the Mother of the Waters for our actions which pollute or dirty her gift of the essence of life.

Thais trongly believe that abundant water is an integral part of completeness. This concept of relation with the waters is called “Samnak nai boun khun” in Thai, and can be roughly translated as the Conscience of Obligation. It in part explains the origins of the Fireboat Festival.

Done by Mr. Jaturong Kerdpetch No.1 Ms. Salinthip Dechavongpairoj No.20