In the Thai Yai dialect, Chong Phara means a castle. It is a handmade wooden or bamboo structure, decorated with colorful perforated papers, various fruits, colorful flags, and lamps. It is traditionally placed in the courtyard of a house or a monastery, often as a symbol of respect to Lord Buddha and his mother in heaven.
Other activities to celebrate the occasion are music, a candle procession, and various kinds of dances including the famous dance in which dancers dress up as mythological creatures, such as the mythological half bird-half human, kinaree.
This ritual happens in the post-rainy season from the full-moon day of the eleventh lunar month―around October―to the waning moon night of the same month.