When we are working out the details of planning a trip, we like to research local festivals during the rough time frame we are looking at to see if there are any that we might reasonably consider timing our visit around. That was part of our process for our 8-week journey to Asia in 2016. We cheated a little as we knew from past experience that there are lots of festivals in Asia from the middle of October to the middle of December and were pleased that on this trip we were able to include festivals in Luang Prabang, Lao; Taunggyi, Myanmar and Surin, Thailand in our itinerary.

On this trip, our entry into Southeast Asia was into Hanoi. After a short visit there we took the just over 1-hour flight to Luang Prabang about a week before Van Ork Phansa, which marks the end of Buddhist Lent coinciding with the end of the rainy season.

For the 3-months of the rainy season monks are restricted to the city of their home temples and monasteries and with the arrival of Van Ork Phansa, they are allowed to resume travel and other social activities. It is traditional that new robes and other gifts are given to the monks on this holiday and we noticed that the attendance by townspeople to the morning alms procession was much larger than we normally see.

The day after Van Ork Phansa the festival Thod Kathin (aka Kathina) is also celebrated in Lao and the Northeast portion of Thailand known as Isaan.

From the very beginning of our arrival in Luang Prabang we could see activities associated with these events.

Each night Temple courtyards all over the city were transformed into magical spaces of lights and candles.

The young monks at Wat Nong Sikhounmuang, the Buddhist temple right behind Chitdara 2 Guesthouse set up a grid of candles in the courtyard that created a mystical setting that drew lots of visitors.

At Wat Pa Phai the light show created by luminaries hung from wires hovering above the rows of candles on the ground attracted large crowds of tourists and locals alike.

Similar scenes were presented all over the city. Temples, homes and businesses were decorated with lighted paper lanterns, many in the shape of a 6 pointed star and in quite few we saw the ongoing construction of illuminated boats and floats that would a part of a parade later in the week.

There were also long boat (rowing) races as a part of the celebration.

Late In the afternoon on the day of Thod Kathin we grabbed a street side table at a restaurant on Sakkaline Road a few blocks from the night market where the judging for floats and groups was to be held and ordered drinks and snacks and watched as the activities began.

Initially after we sat down there wasn’t a lot going on. A few people carrying small displays wandered down the middle of the street.

Shoppers stopped at small tables up and down the street where they bought small hand made floats with flowers and candles for release into the river later that night.

But as the sun set, the flow of people grew into a full blown parade with lighted dragon floats, illuminated paper mache boats, different groups of people wearing ethnic dress and carrying candles and marching (mostly percussion) bands of people headed to the meeting point at the end of the blocked off street.

Eventually after what seemed like everyone in the city had arrived and the judges had awarded prizes for the best boats, floats, bands, costumes and marching groups, the procession made its way down the street to a point upstream on the Mekong River.

The dragon and other forms of lighted boats were launched.  Fireworks flew into the night-time sky from some of the boats as well as from points on the river bank.

Additionally, a large number of people following the procession made their way down the river bank to the water’s edge to send off the small floating candled platforms purchased on the street into the flow of the river and others lit and released white paper bags powered by hot air into the night sky.

We were told both the small river lights and the luminaries were a symbolic cleansing of the soul by casting out bad spirits.

This river display was no where near the one we had seen in the Illuminated Boat Procession we witnessed in in Ubon Ratchatthani, Thailand celebrating the same holiday in 2010 but it was inspiring none the less.

We aren’t sure if we were able to rid ourselves of all our bad demons or not but we lit the candle and released our own little float into the river and celebrated the magical scene.