The Light festival is a Buddhist ceremony that signifies the end of Buddhist lent. From what I've been told this is when the monks shelter themselves during the rainy season and shouldn't be seen walking the streets or tending crops. Things have changed a bit. Monks were still out, but there were several big temple holidays when people would go to give alms to the monks to help feed them during the rainy season.
During Boun Hua Fai in Vientiane, banana leaf boats and several larger boats were set ablaze and sent down the Mekong to celebrate. There were also really beautiful lanterns released into the sky (think the movie Tangled). From what I've found many Buddhist countries do similar celebrations, but all vary. A week after our light festival we went to Phuket, Thailand and saw advertisements for the following weekend light festival events.
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| One of the many larger boats we saw float the river that night. |
Looks pretty! No worries, I'm behind since July! HA!
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