"Sabidee Pee Mai" - Happy Lao New Year 2556!
The Lao, Thai & Cambodian people celebrate their New Year in the middle of April. The celebration lasts 3 days and is considered the most important and biggest traditional festival in south-east Asia. It marks the end of the dry season and the start of the monsoon season - so is seen as a time of rebirth and purification.
The 3 days of Pee Mai
The first day of the festival is the last day of the old year. People prepare perfumed water with flowers to clean their homes and Buddha images with on the second day of the festival.
The second day is neither the old year nor the new year, it is called “the day of no day”. All over the country Buddha images are taken down from their places so that villagers can clean them. They collect the water that runs off the Buddha statues and use it to pour on monks, family and friends. It is believed to bless, clean and purify the receivers before entering the New Year. It usually evolves into a massive water fight.
The last day of the festival is the start of the new year. On this day the Buddha images are moved back to their proper homes, and families hold Baci's to welcome the New Year. In the evening devotees go to temples to listen to the monks chanting and there is a vien tien – a candlelight procession around the temple.
