First of all, you must understand that the best known Lao beer in Laos, is Beerlao and, according to the experts, it is one of the best beers in the world. For 2 years it has collected awards, especially a gold medal in Brussels in 2003, which has got to be one of the best guarantees of excellence !!
Beer is an institution in Laos ; almost as much as red wine in France. Laotians drink it regularly, fresh or not so fresh, but most often iced with a large quantity of ice cubes; something which is unthinkable in our latitudes; but which can be very well understood here, where the temperature (...)

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Constructing a house is subject to a certain number of Buddhist codes and regulations. You must start with elementary foundations so as to receive the benediction ceremony of the bonzes. This takes place on a special day, according to the lunar calendar.
According to custom, tents are put up and plaited bamboo matting is put on the floor for the guests. There are several phases to this first ceremony : there is the setting up of horns of plenty on each of the pillars of the house, the burial of benedictions on stones on the site of the future house. The future construction is encircled (...)

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Marriages start the evening before, with a small celebration between friends; a sort of ‘Stag’ night, where everybody drinks as much as they can ! In Laos, the future couple celebrate this evening together, but can in no way finish the night together.
On the morning of the marriage, the procession, composed of family and friends of the future husband, wearing traditional costumes, go about the town looking for the bride, who waits quietly in her family home, surrounded by her family and friends. The future husband must show a lot of self will to meet up with his future bride, who waits (...)

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Pregnant women are restricted by a certain number of prohibitions and obligations.
Firstly, they can no longer go to the temple during important ceremonies, nor to different, and numerous joyous celebrations such as marriages, “liberation festivals” (Hok Deuaane), purifications / house warmings, death wakes .... To go to them would be a bad omen for the future mother and her baby as well as for the host.
She mustn’t wash after dusk, because of the "Phis", who could eat the child. In spite of the fact that Laotians are Buddhists, they still have this fear of spirits from the time when they (...)

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About a month after a baby has been born, the family must traditionally give, at lunchtime, a celebration gathering of family, friends, and other people they know. Normally this gathers between 30 and 200 people.
This celebration is called the "liberation" of the mother’s obligations after childbirth. This one month period, is controlled and obliges the mother, not only to live in retirement (she mustn’t leave her house until this celebration day; whether the baby be alive or not). She mustn’t sleep in the same bed as her husband (probably to stop him having any contact with his wife), she (...)

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Set by the Buddhist lunar calendar, the end of the rain season is celebrated by a festival, the festival of light. This festival is a celebration for the Mekong, which is the source of life and riches. Six months before Pimay, this celebration indicates the end of the rain season and the renewal of the marriages that everybody has been waiting for, for 3 months.
It takes place mid-October, at the time of a full moon. That day, more than any other, we get up to give more offerings to the bonzes, because it’s a good day. Those who don’t get up, must have really celebrated the night before the (...)

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Luang Prabang - Thursday, the 9th of Octobre 2003
For two days, people have been preparing lanterns and « boats of light» - « hua fay ». The teacher’s festival, a day where tribute is publicly given to thr teachers of all schools, followed by a one day holiday, enabled the manufacture of theses short-lived decorations, to begin in the middle of the week. On the banks of the Mekong river, a huge boat is constructed, it is decorated with palm leaves sculpted into the form of large combs. Paper lanterns already decorate the fronts of many houses; very often in the form of stars hanging in the (...)

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The Lao New Year, or "Pimay Lao" in Lao language, takes place each year in April in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. In Luang Prabang, festivities go on for 3 days (the last day of the year is celebrated, the day "without a year" or black day, and the real New Year’s day), 3 days of happiness for the whole population. But if officially Pimay lasts 3 days, the beginnings of the celebrations, start a few days or even a few weeks before, by what is called "the funny war at Luang Prabang !".
The Funny War at Luang Prabang !
10 to 15 days before Pimay Lao, hostilities begin. Everywhere in the (...)

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