We have to torture the cats to make it rain. How the Thais beautifully solved the problem (5 photos)

There is a legend in Thailand: if there is no rain for a long time, you need to pour water on black cats. Such an ancient call for rain, which in recent years has changed into a very unexpected format.





I feel sorry for the cat!

Recently, there was dry weather in Thailand again, but on the streets of the city, farmers performed a completely unusual ritual of watering cats. The cages contained plush toys instead of animals. Which ones they could buy, and the most affordable ones at the kiosks were Doraemon cats.

Doraemon is a cartoon cat from an old Japanese anime. And in Thailand they simply adore the cat Hello Kitty, which is why she was also doused a lot on this day. They probably rented toys from the children.



In Thailand there is everything with Hello Kitty, even coffee, where you can sit at a table with Kitty

Cat Parade

The rain making ritual is called He Nang Meu or "cat parade". All villagers come out before the planting season and walk through the streets.

In their hands there should be baskets (or cages) with four black cats. Everyone this procession passes must spray the cat with water. And the more she screams and attracts attention, the higher the chance that the gods will hear and it will rain.





Doraemon in a cage, looking funny and crazy

But back in 2015, many complained that they felt sorry for the cats in such processions, although no one died, of course. Then one village was the first to come up with the idea of ​​replacing cats with plush ones.

This idea amused everyone so much that the “plush infection” spread throughout the country, and more and more villages began to replace real cats.

And this spring, by the way, the ritual worked like a plus. In one village, the head admitted that they had not performed this ritual for 10 years. But this year it was dry, so they held a cat procession with Doraeomn, and that same week a storm hit the entire province.



Everyone's faces are so serious, they showed it on TV

By the way, the Thai tradition of calling for rain is quite unique. In India there is a regular dance for naked girls to call for rain, but they are also trying to cancel it.

In Japan, the kindest one is to make a doll out of white paper and hang it upside down outside the window. In China, they pray for rain and stage theatrical performances for the Dragon, the god of water and weather.



Japanese children made cute Teru teru bozu dolls.

I hope the tradition will continue to live on in a new form. It's fun and completely harmless. Besides, I don’t like Hello Kitty, so get them wet, get them wet!