Bun Luang and the Phi Ta Khon Ghost Festival
One of the most unique and colourful festivals in Thailand is Phi Ta Khon that takes place every year in Dansai in Loei Province. It is sometimes translated into English as the Ghost Festival as many people wear ghost masks during the processions. Really the festival is called Bun Luang which is a combination of two different festivals. These are Bun Phra Wet and Bun Bang Fai. The first is the continuous listening of thirteen sermons. The other involves the firing of rockets to ask for sufficient rain.
There are two theories about where the name “Phi Ta Khon” comes from. One is that it evolved from the phrase “Phi Tam Kon” which in English means “Ghost follows a person”. A long time ago, the Dansai villagers believed that ghosts came out of the forest to follow the Lord Buddha. Another theory is that because of the similarity of Dansai’s ghost masks with that of the Khon masks of Central Thailand, that they came to be called “Phi Ta Khon”.