I live with my Thai family in a small village in the north east of Thailand, every year that the rainy season seems a bit late in starting, May/June we have a ceremony/procession around the village.
Firstly someone contributes their pet Cat, which gets put in a cage which is attached to two bamboo poles which allow two people to carry it around the village.
Then some people dress up, a fair bit of Lao Khow (Thai rice whiskey) is drunk and a procession starts around the village with a drum and everybody chanting “we want rain” “give us rain” in the local Isaan dialect.
. As the procession goes by the houses everybody watching throws water over the cat and the people in the procession. Obviously the cat is unimpressed by this but is otherwise unharmed and is let go at the end, looking very offended and stalks off.
It invariably rains within two weeks of this ritual, weather the ritual has anything to do with it is anyone’s guess but this must date back to pre-Thai Buddhism and is interesting to watch…