DATE CHANGED! from 4/20 & 4/21 TO 4/13 & 4/14!

Wait, isn’t Lao New Year in April? Yes.

Officially it falls on the second week of April every year, however New Englanders live in a cold climate, so we want to make sure people aren’t getting hypothermia during the water festival!

Be MINDFUL to practice DAY 1 (April 12th) of this list in your warm and comfy home!

For April 2024, it will be the Year 2567

How is Lao New Year Celebrated?

Day one

April 12th is Day before new year (Observed). April 13th is Day of. (Observed) April 14th is in the New Year (Observed). For the last day of the old new year, Statues of Buddha images are cleaned with water (Hod Phra) and people throw water at each other (Hod Nam Langk), to 'wash away' any bad will that related to the past year.

Day two

The second day is known as the 'day of no day", a day that falls in neither the old year or the new year.

The beginning of the day sees the monks and getting blessings by placing food donations into alms bowls at the main Anumodāna Sālā Hall. Then the laypersons will do other ceremonial actions such as placing flags in sand piles to signify who they'll be surrounded by in their next rebirth. Also washing the Buddha statues with blessed water.

“Water fights” can occur at any time! So enjoy the guesture of washing aways your previous year's misfortunes/karma.

Day three

The starts identical to the previous day.