Thais of Chinese ancestry celebrate the occasion honouring the goddess Lim Ko Niao – a tragic figure in Pattani lore – and other deities depicted in statues carried by staff of the Mae Ko Niao Foundation.

The occasion also features fire-walking rituals.

Lim Ko Niao supposedly travelled from China to Pattani to fetch her brother home because their mother was dying, but he refused to go, having married a daughter of Phraya Tani and converted to Islam.

Distraught, Lim Ko Niao hanged herself from a cashew tree, only to be subsequently mourned and honoured with a statue and shrine.

The annual celebration comes two weeks into the Lunar New Year.