Boat Racing Festival

So I experienced my first holiday in Laos last week. Or course, it was difficult to determine if it was an official holiday or not. Our office staff took two days off, but the hospitals only had one day of holiday (and maybe one day of pseduoholidaty) and some places were business as usual. Hmm, interesting. . . .

Anyway the occasion was the end of Buddhist "lent" or the Rains retreat. During the rainy season, the monks and novices remain stationed at a single temple and do not travel around. Many men are ordained as monks during this time (even if just for 2 weeks) and it is known as a time of spiritual renewal. On the day of the full moon of 11th lunar month, corresponding with the end of the rainy season, the lay people make merit giving the monks needed gifts and then they are once again allowed to travel about. This is also the night that people release heau fai into the Mekong River.. These are boats of bamboo or banana leave with flowers and lighted candles that they believe will carry away all the past and current bad luck and good luck will enter their lives the next day. This is also the night of naga fireballs--the one night a year that the Mekong Dragon releases balls of fire. All sorts of controversy exists as to the actual etiology of this phenomenon, with accusations of human involvement straining Thai and Lao relations. Overall, there was a jubilant atmosphere in Vientiane on this night with sparklers and fireworks all over the city. Of course, lots of Beer Lao and Lao-lao (rice whiskey) add to this merriment. I was very thankful to arrive home safely from Bible study and leave the drunk people to their celebrations.

The next day (?the official holiday?) was the boat races. This involved teams of people in long narrow boats, rowing down the Mekong in one-on-one heats with a bracket system. Paul, a British infectious disease physician with Wellcome-Trust, lives right on the river near the start line and invited us over to watch the races. We mostly ate good food and conversed with the other invited falang (foreigners). We did get brief glimpses of the boats as they sped by and then as they were being towed back up river to the starting line. Apparently the Beer Lao team wins every year and like with other amateur sporting events there are accusations of unfair recruiting, including professional crew members from Thailand. Plenty of Beer Lao and lao-lao was also consumed on this day and I was again relieved to park my bicycle in our driveway.