Thailand is one of the Asian countries whose people chiefly consume rice. And the lives of the Thais have been closely bound to khao or rice since ancient times. In the past, most Thai people, especially those in the rural areas did rice farming to earn their living. The Thais have an old saying that in water, there is fish; in the field, there is rice. This indicates the abundance of foods gained from rice and fish in this land. For the Thais, rice is not only important as the main food that they eat at every meal, but it also has cultural significance. They have related it to other aspects of their lives both consciously and unconsciously. They have several beliefs, customs and ceremonies that show how important rice is to them.
The Thai people, especially farmers, believe that there is a goddess of rice or "Mae Phosop" who guards the rice plants and make them grow fine. The farmers thus hold ceremonies to worship the Goddess at different stages of rice planting. The worship is believed to make Mae Phosop bless the farmers with a good harvest.
When the rice plants are forming into ears, which the Thais call tang thong (pregnant), the farmers will prepare fruits that pregnant women like to eat, including bananas, tamarinds and sugarcane, to be put in a bamboo basket together with face powder, perfume oil and a comb and placed at an auspicious spot in a field. Some blades of rice plants are applied with the powder and fragrance and touched with the comb.
When harvest time comes, a reaping bee (long khaek in Thai) will be formed and the group will rotate to help one another until the harvest season ends. While they are reaping, folk songs are sung to entertain themselves during the work. Mostly, they sing in antiphonal style between a male and a female. And this becomes a recreational folk entertainment.
Apart from the ceremonies that the farmers perform which are different from place to place, there is an ancient royal ceremony that has been performed annually in the country at the beginning of the farming season almost uninterruptedly for over 700 years. It is held not only to mark the beginning of the farming season, but also to bless all farmers with fertility for the year.