Sabaidee Pi Mai Lao! Happy Lao New Year!

Sabaidee Pi Mai Lao / Happy Lao New Year! 

Pi Mai (in Thai, "Songkran") is the three day Lao New Year holiday/ Water festival. It also includes 3 days off for the holiday, so pretty much everyone from work is using the week to go on trips outside of Vientiane. While I'm kind of bummed to be missing the "best festival in Laos", it's really hard to turn down so much vacation time when there are so many places to go :) 

Maybe because so many of us will be gone, or because this is the last day before the New Year, we had a Pi Mai celebration at work today (Friday). On Wednesday, our office admin brought all of us proper "Pi Mai attire", which really just super colorful patterned clothing (think Hawaiian shirts). 

Much to my excitement, and to Nick's embarrassment, the admin brought us similar colors. (This is something that is really, really not that unusual in Asia- lots of couples wear matching T-shirts.)

The main events (waterfight, lunch, dancing) took place outside, which the business heads had decorated for the festivities.

We spent the first couple of hours working, but at 10am we went to our (for most of us anyway) first baci! A baci is a Buddhist celebration, and involved a bunch of prayers which I did not understand, led by a man who is not a monk. Other than that, I don't know much about baci traditions. I do know that all women must have their feet pointing away from the shrine in the center, which made for a really uncomfortable half hour sitting on the floor in a skirt.

(I think- THINK- that all the fruits and banana-leaf-wrapped rice bunches are gifts to the spirits, in hopes that they will provide good fortune and luck in the new year.)

At the end of the baci, the sticks with the white threads (in above picture) were removed from the shrine and distributed amongst those in the group. We took turns giving each other blessings ("Out with the bad, in with the good; I wish you luck, love, health and happiness in the new year") and tying the bracelets on each other. So now I'm wearing 9 white bracelets that I'm not supposed to remove. They're supposed to fall off naturally. It might be a while.

(We also had this special blessing, done by a senior government official- using a red rose, the "lower level" employees blessed her hands with water, and she blessed us with water on our shoulders)

After the blessing exchange, we went outside for lunch, carrying with us the water guns we got with our Pi Mai shirts. One thing I definitely learned today is that when you hand American guys in their 20's a bunch of waterguns and say "don't use these until the waterfight", this is interpreted as "Here is your watergun, the waterfight begins NOW."

After the first hour of spraying and dumping water on each other, many turned their attention to poor unfortunate people driving, scootering or walking by.  It became a little worrisome when some scooter drivers got sprayed in the face and lost control for a couple seconds... This wasn't really enough to stop some in our group. (During Lao New Year, even if you're just walking around during the day in Vientiane, apparently you're likely to be soaked at anywhere, anytime.)

Local kids joined in the fun. After three hours of water fighting, most of us were kind of over being soaking wet all the time- me especially- but since the kids came late to the party, they liked to come over and squirt water in my face when I was dancing or talking with other people. By 3pm, I was kind of done and ready to go home. (A lot of long-term expats apparently like to get out of Laos during the Lao New Year; one friend said it was because she "hated being wet all the time".)

Our afternoon: beer, squirt guns, and white talcum powder rubbed in our faces from time to time (no one was able to tell me why)

Mark, looking like a bad-ass.   

So much water in my eyes. All. Day. Long. 

While part of me is sad that we are leaving tomorrow (for Australia!!!) instead of staying for more festivities, I'm glad we got to experience some of the Pi Mai celebrations before we leave. Also, three days of being constantly wet doesn't sound super awesome. 

Happy Lao New Year! Wishing you health, wealth and love in the new year.