Belief versus pandemic- Fireboat Festival 2020 at Nakhon Phanom, Thailand

Recently, Thais in Nakhon Phanom celebrated the Fireboat festival. Many people believe that in order to appease the goddess of the river, they should bring sacrifices. Thais know how much damage and pollution they have caused to the river and how much abundance they get from the river. So in order for the goddess to continue giving them blessings, they must make some offerings. My Thai friend said that their ancestors used to burn small boats with flower decorations and as time progresses they upgraded the boats into more grandiose and extravagant.

This is my 3rd time attending the festival, but it still left me in awe. The celebration itself is such a meticulous and amazing event. Each district must compete and build their own fireboats and it will take them 2 months to fully completed and prepared for it. I have heard that the district, where I am living now, always wins. All fireboat has its owns unique design but I notice that they always include the design of their own pagodas and it easier for the spectators to identify which district.

This festival is so popular from neighboring provinces that hotels are fully booked and many cars are parked in the area and people are everywhere. Because of the pandemic, the procession was lengthened into 3 days so that there won't be an overcrowded. We went on the last day, and there were still a lot of people but not that many for the past three years.

I compiled this into a youtube vlog, so if you wanna see more videos in this festival, please click here.