Transcript Lai Rua Fai Festival 2786 Kb 03/11/14

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 Godmother 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