Lao Voices

Most people celebrate January 1 as the New Year’s Day, the first day of the year. It is considered by many as a new day and a new beginning, but come to think about it, every day is a new day and can be a new beginning. I think New Year allows people to start a new beginning assuming that you did something bad the year before, this will allow you to start fresh, but really, you don’t need a new year to do this, you can do this any time of the year.

On New Year’s Eve, some Lao and Thai people lit incense sticks to chase away bad spirits or things that happened during the year, and to welcoming the new beginning as they wish for a better coming new year. Some people blame on the animals from the Chinese animal sign of the year, as last year was the year of the golden pig and that it was a bad (or good) pig and hoping that this coming year, the year of the rat will be better. I often wonder about this, I think the ancient people gave the year animal signs (12 animal signs, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Lamb, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig that repeat every 12 years) so that they’d know which year you were born, easy way to remember and has nothing to do with the animals, so don’t blame on the rat (mouse) if you have a bad coming year.

For some of us, Tum Boun Tuk Badt (Almsgiving) on January 1 is a tradition that has passed down for generations and it’s a tradition amongst the Buddhist community whether you’re Laotians, Thais or Khmers (for those that were able to get up early enough as for some might have been out partying all night.) The Buddhist Temple that I visited on New Year’s Day was known as a Khmer temple (Buddhist Center) but the head monk speaks Lao, Thai, and Khmer and the people that were there yesterday were Laotians, Thais, and Khmers. This is a very small temple, not very fancy but the monks seem sincere and our family feels comfortable being there. This might come as a shock to some of you, but yesterday I was recognized as the “Angel” for helping the temple washing dishes, I guess being an angel one day out of 365 days is not bad at all.

As for the year of the Rat, it will not officially be recognized until February 7, 2008, the official New Year’s Day for Chinese people, which marks the beginning of Chinese New Year. New Year is one day when the celebration of New Year brings joy and prosperity for all.