Every year, during mid May, the Laotians and Northeastern Thai hold Boung Bang Fai rocket festivals in which large home-made blackpowder rockets are launched to pray to the rain gods to insure a good rice harvest.
Nobody knows when the custom started but it has allegedy been going on for centuries.
This rocket is an example of one of the Laotian Bang Fai rockets and was a winner in the Lao Rocket festival of the Smithsonian's annual Folk Festival, held in July 1987, which features the cultures of other countries and states. The rockets on this occasion, however, were not meant to fly and did not contain gunpowder. They were also judged strictly according to their attractiveness since in the real Bang Fai festivals the rocket's are judged according to their performance as well as their appearance. The Bang Fai rocket therefore represents an unusual and religious or cultural application of rocketry. PCV pipe is a newer means of constructing Bang Fai rockets which usually have been made with bamboo sections.