Procession to Wat Phon Chai

The description below comes courtesy of Jeff's research.

The Phi Ta Khon (Ghost Mask) Festival is an annual celebration in Isan Thai culture that welcomes good spirits and cleanses the community of bad spirits and sets things off for the most auspicious possible next year.
The festival incorporates Buddhist snd animist traditions and culminates a community effort to usher in a bountiful harvest.

It takes place on the weekend after the sixth full moon of the year, so generally occurs in late June or early July, and celebrates the tale of Prince Vessantara, who either returned from banishment or a trip upon which he was presumed to have died. It also celebrates the sacrifice of an elderly couple who were killed when they cut down a tree that had grown so large it blocked the sun brought darkness and famine to Dan Sai. It is akin to the Day of the Dead, as many of the spirits involved are ancestor spirits, and is a joyful not mournful celebration.

It also serves as a fertility festival, encouraging rain and abundance, and with a very obvious presence of lafge handheld palad khik (or phallus amulets) which do not serve a sexual purpose and are not considered obscene, but are wielded to provide protection and good fortune.

Today saw the calling of the protective spirit Phra Upakhut at the Man River by specially ordained monks, an invitation to the Phi Ta Khon (ghosts and spirits) and a “pre” festival procession from the river to the Wat Phon Chai.

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The first ceremony of the festival begins at 4am where they invoke the spirit of the Mun River. We weren't of course, going to wake up that early. We decided instead to observe the first parade from the town to Wat Phon Chai at 10am.

It rained all night, and when we made our way to the parade route, we were concerned about rain, but, fortunately, the weather held up for the most part. The parade began a little after 10am. It started with what we presumed to be the town's elders, followed by a male and female figure representing the couple who saved the town. After that, various other groups paraded past us uphill to Wat Phon Chai. Each team comes from a different village, and the team members wore similar costumes. There will apparently be a costume contest tomorrow. Most of the costumes were gaudy, and many of them had bells (some even had cowbells) on their outfits which added to the already loud thumping bass from the loudspeakers. I forgot how loud Thai music can be!

Once they went past us, we followed the parade to the temple.
Based on videos I had seen on YouTube, I was led to believe that the parade would be much bigger than this one. But, we later learned that the second day's parade is larger in scale.Read more