LUANG PRABANG, LAOS – Each fall, at the October full moon, the Lao people celebrate Boun Awk Phansa.
The festival marks the end of the three months of Buddhist Lent, a period of meditation, learning and retreat during the height of the rainy season.
Sometimes referred to as the Festival of Lights, the boun (or festival) is held on the 15th day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar.
Colorful decorations pop up all over town
In preparation for the event, the monks decorate their wats and temple grounds with a kaleidoscope of colorful paper lanterns, candles and lights.
Teams from each Lao village construct large colorful dragon floats (some of them 25 feet long, or more). Built on a bamboo framework, the floats are covered with tissue paper and illuminated with dozens of candles.
Meanwhile, the village residents are busy creating small floating “banana boats” (heua fai) using a slice of a banana palm trunk as a base. They decorate the “boats” with intricately folded banana leaves, flowers, candles and other embellishments.
On the night of the festival, the village teams carry the candle-lit dragons through town in a noisy joyous procession to the banks of the river.
The townspeople join the procession to the water’s edge where the dragons are launched into the river. The glittering monsters are accompanied on their voyage by the individual heua fai – thousands of them, all glowing in the night as the moonlight sparkles on the water.
The result is a lovely light show as the swift current carries the lighted floats downstream, taking with them all the evils and bad things from the past year and prayers for good fortune in the year ahead.
We had a special celebration of our own
We were lucky enough to be in Luang Prabang during the week leading up to the 2018 festival (coincidentally falling on Melanie’s birthday).
The entire experience was a photographer’s dream. John filled a handful of memory cards with photos and video.
We’ve created a two-part video series to give you a glimpse of this brilliant annual spectacle and the activities leading up to the main event. Watch Part One below (or visit our Youtube channel).
Part Two features images and video clips from the lighted parade on the night of the Boun Awk Phansa Festival.
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