A Rocket Festival is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced by ethnic Lao people throughout much of Isan and Laos, in numerous villages and municipalities near the beginning of the wet season. Celebrations typically include preliminary music and dance performances, competitive processions of floats, dancers and musicians on the second day, and culminating on the third day in competitive firings of home-made rockets, as is customary in traditional Buddhist folk festivals throughout Southeast Asia. Villages no longer stage "Bun Bang Fai" festivals on the scale of Yasothon's famous event. In recent years the Tourism Authority of Thailand has helped promote these events, particularly the festivals in the Thai provinces of Nong Khai and Yasothon, the latter boasting the largest and most elaborate of these festivals.The Bun bang fai celebration in the past and up till now are not only in Yasothorn Province, but also in many other provinces around that city such as Roi Et, Kalasin, Srisaket, and Mahasarakham. In Suwannaphum of Roi Et Province is one the most magnificent and beautiful of Thailand's Bang Fai parades that is called "Bang fai eh" or "Bangfai ko" (Bang Fai Parade are decorated in the form of Thai traditional artwork or Line Thai). Since the separation of Yasothon from Ubon Ratchathani Province, with its world-famous Candle Festival, Yasothon's provincial capital has elaborately staged its now world-famous Rocket Festival annually over the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday weekend that falls in the middle of May. Village Mor Lam Sing Raw Friday features all-night performances of Mor Lam Sing, which continue intermittently into the early hours of Monday. Mor Lam Sing is a type of morlam that is very popular among the local Isan-Lao population. The performance goes on all night and the locals have great fun. Outsiders have a hard time understanding the humour, which is often rather bawdy. Saturday brings on the competitions for Hae Bangfai Ko are street parades or demonstrations usually featuring traditional dance and accompanying musicians. Sunday competition moves on to the launching of Bangfai, judged, in various categories, for apparent height and distance travelled, with extra points for exceptionally beautiful vapour trails Those whose rockets misfire are either covered with mud, or thrown into a mud puddle (that also serves a safety function, as immediate application of cooling mud can reduce severity of burns). While popular and entertaining, the festival is also dangerous, with participants and spectators alike occasionally being injured or even killed.