Are you afraid of the ghosts? I believe you’ll answer yes but you’re curious about them as well. Gruesome as they are, the supernatural can always arouse an instinctive curiosity among people. That’s why there are ghost stories, ghost films and even ghost festivals. We know, in China, we have the Hungry Ghost Festival; in the west, the Halloween. But do you know there is also a ghost festival in the Thailand? It is a unique event filled with fun and games, called the Phi Ta Khon Festival.

The ghost is not so frightening in this festival. On the contrary, it was a deity. It was said that the Buddha-to-be was born as a prince, a man who served his people with all his heart. One day, he would have to go back to the Heaven and the people were so sad that they begged for his coming back. Thanks to their sincerity, the prince was allowed to come back to the Thailand once a year. When he returned to his country, he was greeted by a delightful procession that even the dead participated in. Later, this day became the Phi Ta Khon Festival, which commemorates the coming back of the prince. And the Phi Ta Khon means the ghost in Thai.

While the legend is kind of melodramatic, the celebrations are really great and joyful.

The Phi Ta Khon Festival is held in the mid-June and it needs elaborate preparation. Young men prepare their fancy ghost masks which are made of coconut shells and decorated with colorful stripes of cloth. Long noses are attached to the masks and painted in oil. As the tradition demands, the masks should be hidden while being made and be kept in rice storage.

Making masks can be a ceremonious act, but it is not enough. Costumes and hats are also necessary. Sheets or blankets are sewn together to look like shrouds while traditional wooden bamboo containers are creatively fashioned into bizarre hats. The ghost masks, costumes and hats are the integral part of the celebrations, which last for three consecutive days.

The first day is marked by a procession, accompanied by music and dancing. The people wearing ghost masks will appear on the roads to tease their audience. During the procession, a rattle of metal fills the atmosphere. It comes from the bell-like ornaments hung around the waists of the Phi Ta Khon to signify their arrival. Moreover, most Phi Ta Khon will carry wooden swords in the shape of an oversized penis with a splash of red paint on the tip and enjoy poking them at visitors. You may consider these phalluses to be rude. However, they symbolized power and fertility in the Thailand.

In the afternoon, there will be a Phi Ta Khon dancing contest. Most intriguing may be the large competition of “Red Water Buffalo”, since the buffalo-head logo chimes in with the fertility symbols. Numerous people will be dressed in ghost outfits with the logo displayed on headgear and white tunic and dance to a long acid rock guitar solo. After the competition, the best masks, costumes and dancers will be awarded in each age group.

On the second day, the people wearing Thai costumes of different time periods dance their way to the temple and fire off bamboo rockets to pray for rain and an abundant harvest. Along the way, monks recite the story of the Buddha’s reincarnation before the enlightenment.

On the last day of the event, the villagers will meet up at a local temple to listen and recite the sacred thirteen sermons of Buddha, chanted by local monks. This practice is believed to generate a great merit for them. To mark the end of the event, the ghosts then take off their masks and costumes and shelve them for the next year’s celebrations.

Ghost festival as it is, it has a local legend and great celebrations. And what behind the festival are the wishes of the people in Thailand to have a good harvest and the worship of Buddha.