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Laos festivals and events
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December
JANUARY
Bun Pha Vet It
is a temple-centre festival in which the jataka or birth-tale
of Prince Vestsantara, the Buddha’s penultimate life, is recited. in
temples throughout the country and this is considered a particularly
auspicious time for ordination as a monk. Falling on different dates
throughout the month - so that people can exchange invitations with
friends and families in different villages to join in their
celebrations. This is also a favoured time (second to Khao
Phansaa) for Lao males to be ordained into the monkhood.
Another months
FEBRUARY
Marha Puha (or Makka Bu-sao)
Held on the night of the full
moon, this festival commemorates a speech given by the buddha to
1,250 enlightened monks who came to hear him without prior summons.
In the talk, the Buddha laid down the first monastic regulations and
predicted his own death. Chanting and offerings mark the festival,
culminating in the candlelit circumambulation of wats
(temples) throughout the country (celebrated most fervently in
Vientiane and at the Khmer ruins of Wat Phu, near Champasak). The
festival is marked by grand parades of candle-bearing worshippers
circling their local temples, merit-making, and much religious music
and chanting.
Vietnamese Tet and Chinese New Year
Celebrated in Vientiane, Pakse and Savannakhet with parties, and
hundreds of strings of non-stop firecrackers, merit making with
noisy parties and visits to Vietnamese and Chinese temples by the
larger Vietnamese and Chinese communities, who close their
businesses for several days during this period.
Sikhotabong Festival
organized in Khammouan from Feb 5 to Feb 8 this religious festival
is held at Sikhottabong stupa, located about 6 km south of Thakhek.
Historically, it was built in the 8th and 10th centuries by King
Nanthasene. Then the stupa was restored as its original design in
the 1950's.
Wat Phu festival
organized annually in Champasak
from Feb 5 to Feb 8, in the full moon of the 3rd month of
lunar calendar,on the grounds of the enchanting pre-Angkorian.Wat
Phu remains in Champasak. Festivities are elephants racing,
buffaloes fighting,cocks fighting and performances of Lao
traditional music and dance.The trade fair showcasing the products
from the southern province of Laos,Thailand,Cambodia and Vietnam is
also held
Another months
MARCH
Boun Khoun Khao
- A harvest festival celebrated at local temples and wats
Another months
APRIL
Boun Pimai (or Pimai Lao)
one of the most important annual
festivals, particularly in (Luang Prabang). is to celebrate Lao New
Year in the lasting several days in mid-April (13-15), The
first month of the Lao New Year is actually December but festivities
are delayed until April when days are longer than nights. By
April it’s also hotting up, so having hoses leveled at you and
buckets of water dumped on you is more pleasurable. Ii is a
combination of merriment and meditation. Similar to festivals at
this time of year in other Southeast Asian countries - particularly
Thailand - Boun Pimai is celebrated with parades, circle dance (ramwong),
traditional Lao folk singing (mor lam) and enthusiastic
water-throwing. The religious aspects of the festival are most
apparent in Luang Prabang, where water pouring ceremonies are used
to Buddha statues are worshiped with water pouring ceremonies.
Temple compounds are further decorated with small sand Stupas,
offered as merit towards good fortune and health.
Pi Mai The lunar
new year begins in mid-April and practically the entire country
comes to a halt and celebrates. Houses are cleaned, people put on
new clothes and Buddha images are washed with lustral water. In the
wats, offerings of fruit and flowers are made at various altars and
votive mounds of sand or stone are fashioned in the courtyards.
Later the citizens take to the streets and douse one another with
water, which is an appropriate activity as April is usually the
hottest month of the year. This festival is particularly picturesque
in Luang Prabang, where it includes elephant processions.
Another months
MAY
Labour Day 1st
May - public holiday
Visakha Puja
chanting, religious instruction, and candlelit processions highlight
this temple festival in celebration of the birth, enlightenment and
death of the Buddha.
Boun Bang Fai (rocket festival)
with its origins in pre-Buddhist rain-invoking ceremonies, this
festival now coincides with the Lao Visakha Puja celebrations. Large
bamboo rockets are built and decorated by monks and carried in
procession before being blasted skywards to invite the rains. The
higher a rocket goes, the bigger its builder’s ego gets. Designers
of failed rockets are thrown in the mud. Parades, songs, dances and
partying everywherel. This dramatic festival lasts 2 days and also
celebrated in north east Thailand.
Another months
JUNE/LULY
Children's Day
(1st June - public holiday)
Khao Phansao
(also Khao Watsa, full moon) - Marking the beginning of the
traditional three month "rains retreat" during which Buddhist monks
are expected to station themselves in a single monastery. At other
times of year they are allowed to travel from wat to wat or simply
to wander in the countryside, but during the rainy season they
forego the wandering so as not to damage fields of rice or other
crops. It commences at the full moon in July and continues until the
full moon in October and all ends with the Kathin ceremony in
October when monks receive gifts.. These are the most usual months
for ordination and for men to enter the monkhood for short periods
before they marry and is marked by numerous ordination ceremonies.
It (FP)
Another months
AUGUST
Haw Khao Padap Din
devoted to remembering and paying respect to the dead, it is marked
by the macabre ceremony of exhuming previously buried bodies,
cleaning the remains, and then cremating them on the night of the
full moon. Relatives then present gifts to the monks who have
chanted on behalf of those who have passed away.
Boat Racing festival
organized in Luang Prabang from Aug 17 to Aug 18 This
festival includes boat racing on the NamKhane River and a trade fair
in Luangprabang city. At the Khao Salak ceremony day, people visit
local temples to make offering to the dead as well to share merits
making.
Another months
SEPTEMBER
Boun Ok Phansa This is the end of Buddhist
Lent and the faithful take offerings to the temple. It is month
number 9 in Luang Prabang and month number 11 in Vientiane, and
marks the end of the rainy season. Boat races take place on the
Mekong River with crews of 50 or more men and women. On the night
before the race small decorated rafts are set afloat on the river.
(FP)
Boat Racing festival
organized in Sept 2 in
Khammouan Boat Racing is held in Sebangfai river. At
the same occasion a trade fair of agricultural products, local
handicrafts, traditional Lao music and dance performance; at the
same time, citizens donate the offering to the dead in to share
merits.
Another months
OCTOBER
Awk Phansao (Awk Watsa)
This celebrates the end of the three-month rains retreat on the day
of the full moon. Monks are at last permitted to leave the temple
and are presented with robes, alms bowls and other requisites of the
renunciative life.
One particularly beautiful aspect is Lai Hua Fai. On the eve
of Awk Phansaa people gather at the nearest body of water to release
dozens of small banana-leaf boats decorated with candles, incense
and small flowers, in a celebration similar to the Thai
Loy Krathong.
Bun Nam (water festival)
A second festival held in association with Awk Phansaa is
Bun Nam (water festival) in riverside towns such as Vientiane,
Luang Prabang and Savannakhet, the highly competitive Bun Nam boat
races (suang heua) are held during the same time as Awk Phansaa.
Smaller communities sometimes hold these races on National Day on
2nd December so that residents aren’t saddled with two costly
festivals in two months.
Boat Racing festival
organized in Oct 2 to Oct 3 in
Vientiane. The
water festival held during k Pansa is spectacular; on the first day
at dawn, donations and offerings are made at temples around the
city; in the evening, candlelight processions are held around the
temples and hundred of colorful flosta decoated with flower; incense
and candle are set adrift down the Mekong river in thanksgiving to
the river spirit; the next day, a popular and exciting boat racing
competition is held on the Mekong.
Another months
NOVEMBER
Boun That Luang
- Though celebrated at many temples and stupas ( thats in laos )
around the country, this festival is traditionally centred and most
enthusiastically and colourfully at That Luang in Vientiane. Fairs,
beauty contests, music and fireworks take place throughout the week
of the full moon, and end with a candlelight procession (wien
thien) around the temple of That Luang.
That Luang Festival ( full moon)
This takes place
at That Luang in Vientiane. Hundreds of monks assemble to receive
alms and floral votives early in the morning on the first day of the
festival. There is a colourful procession between Wat Si Muang and
Pha That Luang. The celebration lasts a week and includes fireworks
and music, culminating in a candlelit curcumabulation (wien thien)
of That Luang. (LP)
Another months
DECEMBER
Lao Naitional Day
This celebrates the 1975 victory of the proletariat over the
monarchy with parades, speeches, etc.Streets strewn with national
flags and banners, processions, parades. Celebration is mandatory,
hence poorer communities postpone some of the traditional Awk
Phansaa activities–usually practised roughly a month
earlier--until National Day, thus saving themselves considerable
expense (much to the detraction of Awk Phansaa)
That Inhang Festival organized in
Oct 2 to Oct 3 in Savannakhet.
This festival will ce held on the grounds of the splendid That
Inhang stupa, located just outside the city of Savannkakhet; an
international trade fair will include exhibitions of tourism
products from Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and performance of
traditional Lao, Thai and Vietnamese music and dance; the fair will
also include a sports competition, complete with foorball, boxing
and tennis matchs and local traditions like a drumming competition.
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