Naga Fireball Festival
The Naga Fireball Festival is the celebration of an ancient mysterious phenomenon that occurs annually on two particular nights on the Mekong River. On the nights before and after glowing balls rise out of the 250 km long Mekong River that separates Northern Thailand from Laos.
The Naga that lives under the river in a kingdom called “Muang Badan”, watching over the people living in the Mekong basin. Once a year this mythical seven headed King of Serpents spits fireballs into the sky resulting in the Mekong lights or “bung fai paya nak” as called by the locals. Scientists however, have a couple of theories for the non-believers. One theory suggests that methane gas trapped under the riverbed finds just the right conditions around this particular time of year to release and get spontaneously ignited upon surfacing, while another theory suggests plasma physics which explains combustion when surface electricity is discharged into a solution.