Lao New Year Festival Atlanta, GA

For the younger generation of Laotian and any other ethnic groups that wants the skinny on Laos New Year, here's a history lesson.  Lao New Year is the most widely celebrated festival in Laos. The festival is also celebrated by Laotians in the United States of America, Canada, France, and Australia. When the Lao people first emigrated from southern China, Lao New Year was celebrated according to the Chinese Lunar New Year calendar. Since settling in mainland Southeast Asia, the Lao have adopted the new year's traditions of the Khmer and Mon-Burmese people, based on the calendar and traditions of India.

Lao New Year takes place in April, the hottest time of the year in Laos, which is also the start of the monsoon season.  Usually celebrated officially between April 24th through April 29th.  The first day is the last day of the old year. Houses and villages are properly cleaned on the first day. Perfume, water and flowers are also prepared for the Lao New Year. The second day of the festival is the "day of no day", a day that falls in neither the old year or the new year. The last day of the festival marks the start of the new year.

During the festival, water is splashed at strangers and friends to give blessing and peace to life.  Without water life can't be achieved.  Sand is use to create stupas or also known as mounds to be decorated with flowers as a respect to the Monks.  The annual beauty pageant also takes place to represent Miss Lao New Year for that Community.  There's only seven contestants which symbolizes each of King Kabinlapom's daughters.  Music and food are the main ingredients for a festive time.  Many vendors from the Community would set up shop around the Lao Temple grounds and a band would be chosen each day to perform throughout the week.

The festival would last 4 days and 3 nights.  I arrived on a Saturday which is the 3rd day of the festival.  Upon my arrival in Atlanta, GA to visit my cousins, I got settled in than we would make our way to the festival grounds, which is traditionally in the vicinity of the Lao Temple structure.

When I entered the gate to the Temple, the first thing that came to mine was all the food vendors occupying space around it.  This is street food heaven.  This is my Disneyland.  I can see and hear thousands of my own people stammering and clamoring around the food tents anxiously waiting to get their feed on.  Adults were scampering around the vendors 'liked children rushing for the pinatas waiting for it to burst out with goodies'.  There were also vendors set up to sell clothes, gifts, medicine, spices and much more.  You name it they got it.

The food that was sold is as traditional as it can get, I was very familiar with the food so not much curiosity on my part. To the foreigners they would find almost every dish sold to be bizarre dinning.  What did catch my attention was the parade of live bands that was set up on a truck circling the Temple.  It's tradition for people to follow the parade floats that circled the Temple repeatedly, that way you can have a chance to get your redemption on that stranger that splash water on you.  Let's put it this way, the festival is like an all out water fight that included whip cream and shaving cream.

All around the Temple you would have an ongoing water fight with children and adults, there's no safe place to hide.  I did not mind being splash inadvertently as long as I didn't have to pay for the water bill.

The drinking, eating, dancing, mingling, water splashing and live bands would continue on until the last day.  On the last day is when they announced the winner of the Miss Lao New Year Pageant.  Me personally wouldn't mind taking any of the seven contestants back to Wisconsin with me, they were all stunning and ravishing.

Prior to the last day of the Festival, I was invited to a backyard BBQ.  This was just like any other BBQ I've been too except for one thing.  They were cooking whole baby cow drumstick, so I said to myself, "there's no way I'm leaving here without a photo of me hoisting this Flint stone size hind leg".  With all my might I managing to lift up this gigantic size finger food just long enough for a photo to be taken.  This thing must of weigh 30lbs and had to be at-least 4ft long and at it's thickest section, 2ft in diameter.  I was surprise at how thoroughly the meat was cooked without being burnt and also how tender it was, perhaps because it was a baby cow, or in other words, 'veal'.

Below you can find a video slide show of everything I came across during my first ever major Lao New Year Festival.  Music by a very popular singer in Thailand, 'Loognuk Supaporn'.