The Akha Swing Festival comes in late August each year. It falls on the 120 day after that village planted its rice. The festival marks the end of the hard weeding work on the rice and is a time of celebration for all.
The Akha say that they came down from God through the swing.
The swing is built by an elder called a Dzoeuh Mah. A village which does not have this elder can not build a regular swing or gate.
The swing is used for four days, then the braided vine rope is wrapped around one of the four very long legs and the swing is left there till it is rebuilt the next year. Swinging on an Akha swing is fast and takes one very high, an old rope is not safe.
Akha swings can be seen in traditional villages. Swings and other traditions are eliminated from christian villages.
Western guide books and Thai tourist guides all like to claim that some kind of sexual circus goes on at a swing festival, often portraying tribal people with less dignity than themselves.