rules and safety measures and setting criteria and prizes for the best rockets. Weeks before the festival, bamboo rockets are built and decorated by monks and villagers. They vary in size from small to very large rockets that hold gunpowder from less than 12 kilograms to 120 kilograms. The festival usually lasts two days and begins early in the morning with the associated religious ritual by the monks in the temple. Early in the afternoon a buddhist procession kicks off in which villagers carrying money trees circle three times the central ordination hall where sits a buddha statue in a clockwise rotation on the sound of traditional music (). The money trees are then offered to the monks in a Buddhist ritual believed to garner religious merit. Afterwards, rockets from all involved villages are displayed in the court of the temple followed by a celebration with traditional music and dance that can last up to the early morning of the next day. The second day begins with a morning ceremony of food offering from faithful villagers to the monks in the assembly hall of the temple (). The food usually includes sticky rice, cakes, and other sweets that the faithful line up to place in the monks’ alms-bowls during the sermon. In addition, other food dishes are portioned out in small bowls and are offered to the monks on rattan trays. The religious leader of the village ritually presents the food to the monks by reciting the five precepts of buddhism. The monks, in return, offer the teachings of the Buddha by chanting sutras and sermon. During the sermon, the faithful address prayers to their ancestors, and do the Yaat Nam () which consists of having water blessed by a monk before pouring it, drop by drop, on the earth. After the ceremony a meal is shared by all participants. The faithful believe these offerings grant long life to anyone who gives with a serene heart. The religious ceremony is followed by a boisterous street parade through the village with floats and pickup trucks displaying the rockets on the sound of the Khene (), cymbals and long drums () (). Teams of contestants dance and chant traditional folksongs, with the team's leader chanting first and then the others repeating (). The songs are poetic in nature and use sexual themes that symbolize the relationships between heaven and earth as well