Lao Voices

I don’t recall ever celebrate or take part in Boun Haw Khao Padap Din, this is the first time I’ve heard, and it’s very new to me. It is a Lao somber festival in which the living pay respects to the dead. It’s marked by a ceremony of exhuming previously buried bodies, cleaning the remains, and then cremation them on the night of the full moon. Just the thought of being there gives me chills and goose bumps Brrrrrrrr. and here, I love ghost story, I’d absolutely love to see the ceremony and become a part of it.

Relatives then present gifts to the monks who have chanted on behalf of those who have passed away.

Boun Haw Khao Padap Din is celebrated on the 15^th day of the waning moon in the 9^th month of Lao calendar; therefore sometimes it falls on August or September. There’s always a lot of preparation for Lao Boun, each household cooks a great number of Khao Tom, which they give to relatives and friends, and some are reserved for Tukbat (morning Alms).

In the morning, people would go to the temple to Tukbat and receive Sin 5 (five percepts), and listen to the monks chanting.

The Boun is to show respect, not only to one’s own ancestors, but also to the dead with no relatives to remember them. It is also the time to show respect to Maethaulanii (mother earth god). Early in the morning, before entering the Temple to Tukbat, about 4-5 am, people place the Khao Tom, other food, betel for chewing and cigarettes, all wrapped in banana leaves or lotus leaves, in the temple grounds at the foot of trees, or before the monuments holding the ashes of the deceased relatives, or in the corner of the temple walls.

Before going to the temple, Haw Khaos (wrapped rice) are put in the four corners outside one’s home such as the stairs, the spirit house, the rice storehouse, and on the gate. The Haw Khaos are put on the ground so that the spirits can reach them, while it’s still dark, the spirits can come and get the offerings.

In the evening, monks and laypersons attend a candlelit procession around the temple.

The Thais have something similar to this but with a more catchy title. I translated an article called Living For The Dead, and the ritual is called Nora Rong Khru Chao Ban Ritual, in which Nora is a performance tradition in which dance, drama, ritual, and magic are intertwined to create a bridge between the mundane world and the supernatural. An ancestral rite known as Nora Rong Khru Chao Ban is an important part of a living tradition in a certain southern villages of Thailand.

For three days, the nora master prays, sings, dances, and acts out a dance drama, which directing the ritual sequences invoking the ancestral spirits to descend from their heavenly realm to enter the trance mediums.

This is the belief in the story of “Ching Plaid” (ghost), which they claim that on the 10^thmonth of every year, the door from the spirit world would open to the human world, this is the opportunity for those ghost that don’t have any living relative, to do good deed for them, such as offering foods and other miscellaneous items to the monk at the Wat (temple) and indirectly offering them with ‘boun’ (charity), they would come back on this day to receive ‘boun’ from other people that are not related to them. These wandering ghost spirits are called ‘Phee Plaid’, without ‘boun’, they will not be able to go on to the next life, therefore stuck in the spirit world until they received ‘boun’ that’s offering to them. Food offering through the monk might be a strange belief and concept to some, but it’s something that most Thai and Lao people are familiar with, and has been a part of our tradition for centuries.

I found the two celebrations to be very similar but yet totally different ways of celebrating the festive events.

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