"the never ending new year festivals"

The date is  "van tisam sip duanneung" (30 January 2012) and I still think it’s a few days after New Year’s Eve.It has been strange having to attend a different type of New Year’s party once or twice every week particularly in the past five weeks. If one were to ask me what my hobby was I would probably say that it is attending New Year festivities.The nation of Laos has many ethnic groups: these include the Lao Hmong , Lao Lum, Lao Tung, Khmu and some Vietnamese too.However, they all have their New Year’s festivals at different times. I must admit being one of the few “damfallangs” (black foreigner), has also come with a couple of responsibilities .These include representing my scarce race at parties as well as having to answer many questions about my hair and my "piudam" (black skin).I thought by this time I would be tired of answering the questions about Africa. Surprisingly I am not and seem to be going strong;the questions are becoming more interesting and one question seems to lead to another.

I have never celebrated the dawn of a New Year this much. In counting I have attended the Lao Hmong celebrations,Lao Tung, Vietnamese, Chinese, and I am still yet to attend one more festivity.  

Lao Hmong

This  celebration is probably one of the most popular;apparently  villages take turns hosting the annual  event. The festive season lasts for the whole of December .The Lao Hmong are the second largest ethnic group in Laos. Over the past years they have preserved their cultural norms, beliefs and way of life, and hence such an event is significant and widely celebrated within the group.I had a chance to attend the main festivity in a village near Vientiane city. Hundreds of Hmong people and other Lao people attended the three day celebration.My church friends dressed me up in a traditional suit before we began parading around the village grounds and the area where various exhibitions and games were hosted.

Hmong Festival

                           

We slept in one of my friend’s grandmother’s house. On the next morning we watched the bull fights before we headed back home. It was certainly a memorable weekend.

Lao tung (Thai Dam),Vietnamese, and Chinese festivals

These festivals coincide and are celebrated simultaneously.However I attended three different functions,each of the three held by different ethnic groups (Thai Dam , Vietnamese and Chinese).Their celebrations are similar.The festival is done annually, it is based on the lunar calendar  and is popularly known as the lunar new year ,they prepare a  dish known as "khao thom"  ( Boiled rice and pork wrapped in a Banana leaf) .the delicacy takes several hours to prepare whilst the guests chart and drink beer as they wait for the special meal. My host family is Vietnamese and so is 70% of my neighborhood/village.The neighbors ensured that everyone noticed that it was their new years eve. At midnight (January 21st) different types of fireworks were launched to mark the beginning of "yet another" new year'.To me it seems as though these are just preparations for the main event.My host brother has recently been informing me about the official Lao national  new year(held in April) , he says its  bigger, exciting  and special.Well!  I cant wait, am so impatient, I guess till then the new year hasn't began.