Festivals are called boun in Lao. Many
are local, focused on the village temple (vat). Others are of regional significance, lasting for
days and drawing large crowds of people. Among the most colorful is the Boun
Vat Phu, centred on an ancient Khmer temple dating from the eleventh century in
Champasak province, In the south of Laos, which is held each February. Another
is the Boun Phabat, the festivals of the Buddha’s footprint, held in
Borikhamxai province in july. Then there is the Boun That Inhang, held in
December in thr grounds of the revered That Inhang stupa in Savannakhet
province in centrol Laos. And there are many more. In this book we have had to
confine ourselves to national festivals celebrated in the capital, Vientiane,
or former royal capital of Luang Prabang, along with those festivals that are
of special significance in the Laos ritual year.
The timing of festivals depents on the
phases of the moon in the complicated Lao lunar-solar calendar. Evenly numbered
lunar months have thirty days, while odd-numbered months have twenty-nine.
Twelve lunar months add up to only 354 days, eleven short of te solar year.
Every so often, therefore, the two have to be brougth back into line by
inserting an extra lunar month after the eighth( called the second eighth
month). This is why festivals take place on different days each year.
To make thing even more confusing, Lao
New Year (Pi Mai) falls usually in the fifth, but sometimes in the sixth, lunar
month, depending on astronomical calculations, and so is celebrated in April.
Whether New Year festivals last for three or four days also depends on the
moon. And that’s only Lao New Year. In Laos all the major ethnic groups
celebrate their own New Year, and every one joins in.
The first to arrive, in November, is
the Hmong New Year (called Nor Chia). The Hmong(known as Miao in China) were
the last major ethnic groups to arrive in Laos, beginning their migration in the early.
Nineteenth century. They settled in the high mountains os northwest and
northern Laos, where they pratised slash-and-burn agriculture and grew opium as
a cash crop. All the scattered Hmong communities celebrate New Year as their
major festival. Men and women dress in
their finest traditional custumes. Traditional instruments and games are
played, including one where lines of girls throw cloth balls to preferred young
men. There are competitions that range from ox fighting to top spinning,and of
course lots of eat and drink.
Next comes the Khmu NewYear in
December or January. The Khmu are the largest of the many ethnic groups in Laos
and speak Mon-Khmu languages akin to Cambodian. They were probably among the
original inhabitants of Laos and also live in the north of the country, thouth
at lower altitudes than the Hmong. In Lao they are often called Lao Theung, Lao
of the upland slopes. Like the Hmong they cut and burn the forest to grow their
crops of upland rice and vegetables. New Year celebrations include the ritual
slaughter of a buffalo or ox, and the drinking of copious quantities of rice
wine brewed in large jars and drunk through rattan straws.
The next two New Years are the western
New Year on January 1, which is a public holiday, and the Chinese/Vietnamese
New Year, which falls later in January or early February, again accoding to the
lunar calendar. Substantial Chinese and Vietnamese communities can be found in
most large Lao towns, having settled first when Laos was a French colony. As
elsewhere in southeast Asia, chinese and Vietnamese New Year is celebrated with lots of loud firecrackers,
performances of chinese opera, and some serious feasting.
Laos New Year is the last to arrive,
but is well worth the wait. With it, even though it falls in the fifth or sixth
lunar month, we shall begin our review of the annual cycle of Lao festivals.
Before doing so, however, we have to know something about what the Lao
festivals are celebrating-and that requires some understanding of Lao religion.
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