Residents in procession with stuffed DoraemonReproduction / Internet
Published 02/05/2024 09:29
Amid a suffocating heat wave in Southeast Asia, residents of a Thai village resorted to an unusual method to invoke rain: a procession with a stuffed toy of the manga cat Doraemon.
The curious parade was held in Phayuha Khiri district in the central province of Nakhon Sawan, which has not received rain for months.
Dressed in bright costumes, participants in the procession paraded with a cage decorated with yellow garlands and the plush toy Doraemon inside, which some passers-by sprinkled with water.
The parade is based on an ancient ritual known as “Hae Nang Meaw” which, translated, means the cat procession.
According to tradition, cats’ aversion to water caused them to meow furiously when wet and, with these cries, invoke rain.
Nowadays, most villages no longer use real cats, but celebrate their parades with Doraemon or HelloKitty dolls.
This isn’t the only unusual image left by the heatwave in the Southeast Asian kingdom.
In the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, scorching temperatures of up to 41°C caused the tracks of a railway line to begin melting.
“Operators brought water and ice to cool the tracks” and within an hour they were ready to be used again, the state railway company said.
Sweltering heat in South and Southeast Asia caused power outages due to grid saturation caused by air conditioning systems and led to school closures. Experts attribute more frequent, longer and more intense heat waves to climate change.
The El Niño phenomenon has contributed to this year’s unusually high temperatures, but Asia is also warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
