Lao New Year!

Last week we celebrated Pii Mai Lao—Lao New Year. This was a three day festival that was fun and cultural and messy. Katelin and I went up to Luang Prabang with her host family.

April is undoubtedly the hottest month of the year, so it makes sense to have a giant water festival, which is used for washing homes, Buddha images, monks, and soaking friends and anyone who happens to pass by. At first it was very gentle, people asking to pour water on elders and monks for blessings of long life and peace. Then it turned into an all out war throwing not just water, but corn starch, paint, charcoal and water balloons.

Sand is brought to the temple grounds and is made into stupas or mounds, then decorated before being given to the monks as a way of making merit. However, most people went to the beach to make stupas. These sand castles are decorated with flags, flowers, white lines (corn starch), and splashed with perfumed water. We went across the river to the beach to make our stupa, which did get a lot prettier than this.

Unfortunately, we didn't get much prettier for the remainder of the trip. I'm still not sure how this police man stayed so clean...

Another way to make merit at this time is to set animals free. Buddhists believe that even animals need to be free. The most commonly freed animals are tortoises, fish, crabs, birds, and eels. Everyone got decked out in brightly colored clothing, our shirts were cool, trust me!

There is an annual pageant in Luang Prabang to crown Miss Bpee Mai Lao (Miss Lao New Year) in the Nangsoukhane pagent. After this parade she rode in, many went to the wat for a special blessing for the new year.