FESTIVALS AND MAJOR EVENTS

Avariety of festivals and religious ceremonies are observed throughout the whole year. The most important ones are listed below.

Mid January:    

Boun Khoun Khao: Harvest festival in villages. A ceremony is performed giving thanks to the spirit of the land.  

February:  

Vat Phou festival: On the full moon of the third lunar month (usually in early February), the residence of Champassack celebrate the traditional Vat Phou festival. The festivities include elephant races, water buffalo fighting, cock fighting and many traditional performances.

Boun Khao Chi: a ceremony held at the vat in the morning, when a special "bread made of sticky rice" is offered.

Lunar New Year: is celebrated by the Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Laos. Firecrackers explode throughout this holiday and mouth-watering cakes and sweetmeats are made especially for the occasion.

March:  

Boun Pha Vet: commemorates King Vessanthara's reincarnation as the Buddha. Fortune-telling is a highlight of this three days festival.

April:  

Boun Pimai: the Laos New Year, is celebrated in mid April. On the first day of festival, Buddha images are taken out of the temples to be cleaned with scented water. The water which drops from the Buddha images is collected and taken home in order to pour it on friends and relatives as an act of cleaning and purification. On the evening of the final day, the Buddha images are returned to their proper shrines. In Luang Prabang the festival also features a beauty contest with the crowning of Miss Pimai.

Mid May:  

Boun Visahhabousa: celebrates the day of Buddha's birth, enlightenment and passing away. It is a time to pay one's respects to ancestors with chanting, sermons, and a candlelit procession at night.  

Boun Bangfai: the rocket festival, is held at the beginning of the rainy season. The festival is a call for rain and a celebration of fertility. In the morning a religious ceremony is performed. In the afternoon, people gather in the fields on the outskirts of village and towns to launch self-made firework rocket. Different communities compete for the best decorated and the highest travelling rocket. Men disguised as women perform vaudeville acts using wooden phalli in order to anger the gods. As revenge, the gods are expected to send thunderstorms. Beginning around the middle of May, the rocket festival are staggered from place to enable greater participation and attendance.

June:  

This is time when an offering to the spirits can be made in a corner of one's garder, very early in the morning.

July:  

Boun Khao Phansa: the beginning of the Buddhist lent. For a break-taking sight, visit one of the large temples at dawn to see hundreds of worshippers, mostly women wearing vividly coloured silks, performing the rituals of Tak Baat, offering gifts to the monks, and Yaat Nam, poring water into the ground to ensure that the offerings benefit one's ancestors. During the next three-month period, monks spend most of their time in prayer and meditation and are restricted from spending nights in other vats other than their own.

August:

Boun Kao Padabdinh: the observation of a practice of making offerings to the dead.

September:  

Boun Khao Salak: is for offerings to be made for the dead, to share merit with them.

October:  

Boun Ok Phansa: that marks the end of the monks' three-month-fast and retreat during the rainy season. At dawn, donations and offerings are made at the temples. Prayers are chanted by the monks, and at dusk candlelight processions wind round the temples. Concurrently, hundreds of decorated candlelit-floats, made of paper, are set a drift in the rivers. These carry offerings and incense, transforming the rivers into a fragrant snake of sparkling. This ceremonial part is called Boun Lay Heua fai. The biggest event of the Ok Phansa festival, Boun Souang Heua, is the boat race festival, is held the day after Ok Phansa. Crowds gather at the Mekong river to watch 45 members teams rowing wooden pirogues to the beat of drums in competition for the coveted trophy.

November:

Boun That Luang: is a three-day religious festival celebrated at full moon in November. It begins with pre-dawn gathering of ten thousands of pilgrims from Laos and Thailand at That Luang who listen to prayers and sermons chanted by hundreds of monks representing all Lao vats. During the following days a fair is held nearby. The festival ends with a huge fireworks display.