Events & Festivals in Laos

Laos has many festivals, or Boun scattered throughout the year to commemorate various aspects of traditional Lao lifestyle and culture. Most festivals are connected with religion and follow the rice farming seasonal cycle. The timing each festivals is calculated according to the Buddhist lunar calendar which changes every year. Please check the latest information before attending these events.

August

Boat Racing Festival

Luang Prabang Province
At the Khao Padabdin ceremony day, people visit local temples to make offerings to dead ancestors as well as to share merit-making. This festival includes boat racing on the Nam Khan River and a trade fair in Luang Prabang World Heritage town.

Boun Souang Heua 

In Luang Prabang, this festival is held during the ninth Buddhist lunar month and is an important part of the traditional agricultural cycle. The festival pays tribute to the naga, (mythical snake water deities) with the intention of attracting the naga from the inundated rice fields back into the river. It also commemorates the end of the rainy season and brings luck for an abundant harvest. Boat races take place on the river. By holding boat races, people ritually reclaim the land from the naga, chasing them out from fields and streams and back into the Mekong River.

National Uprising Day - 23rd

On August 23 1975 under the leadership of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party and the Lao Peoples Liberation Army 20000 people took to the streets in Vientiane the capital of Laos demanding an end to the old regime and the monarchy. They took control of the capital which led to a rapid series of victories across the country culminating in the proclamation of the Lao People's Democratic Republic on December 2, 1975 with the abdication of King Savang Vatthana. The events of 1975 came after years of civil war and devastating, illegal bombardment of the country by the United States.