Lao New Year is an extended celebration... three days of prayers, blessings, ceremony and family get-togethers. It's also about food, of course, and lots and lots of water.

For those of the Buddhist faith, New Year can be celebrated at different times. For some it falls on the first full moon in January while others – Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans celebrate later in the month. But for the Thais, Burmese, Sri Lankans, Cambodians and Lao people, New Year begins on the first full moon day in April.

For Sydney’s 8000 strong Lao community, it’s a three day celebration – known as Pimai. At their beautiful temple – built by years of fund-raising and hard work – people like Bouansanith Soukaseume mark the end of the old year with a special day of prayers and cleansing. They also prepare festive food – making sure to feed the monks first. (Monks cannot have material possessions so all their food is offered to them and they must eat by midday).

On the first day, community members build sand mounds which they adorn with little flags representing the New Year. It's a way of repaying your family for all they have given you and reaping as many blessings in return as there are grains of sand. Pi Mai is also about cleansing and renewal. So all the Buddha images and temple items must be bathed with water. Water is also sprinkled on the congregation, as part of a blessing. The community believe this will bring peace and prosperity for the New Year to come.

Central to each day’s festivities is food. Bouasanith and her companions start by making kao tom – parcels of sticky rice (a Lao staple) with sweetened coconut milk and bananas. (“Kao” means rice and “tom” means “boiled”).

The second day is the day in between the old and the new years. It is a day for family gatherings, time to reflect, to heal any wrong doings from the past year and ask forgiveness.

Once again, food is a major part of the day’s activities, especially a festive dish called larb. Larb is a salad of fine chopped herbs – lemongrass, kaffir lime, coriander and mint with minced chicken meat (grilled breast and poached giblets). It can be made with vegetables or other meats too. It’s dressed with fish sauce, lemon juice and toasted raw sticky rice – toasted to brown andthen ground.

Before sharing the New Year’s meal, there’s an important family ceremony, of reconciliation and blessing. Respect is shown to the older members of the community and forgiveness sought. The senior members of the family sit in the centre and everyone else sits around them, forming circles by generation. Each person holds onto the shoulder of the older family member in front of them.

Blessings are given by the tying of a white string around the wrist. It’s believed this is a way of bringing our wandering souls back to our body so that we are strong and ready for the new year ahead.

Finally, on the third day, everyone returns to the temple for the fun and joy of New Year’s day. Offerings are given to the monks, prayers are said and the New Year Queen and her sisters parade around the temple. After that there is dancing and food from a number of stalls set up for the day. Popular dishes are larb, eaten with sticky rice and som tam – green papaya salad, pounded to order in a wooden mortar and pestle with tomato and lime, garlic, palm sugar and chilli and flavoured with fish sauce.

The climax – particularly for the younger generation – is the use of lots more water! It’s a form of cleansing and blessing, but it’s also a great way of having a huge water fight… and getting absolutely drenched!

Sabadee pimai, as the Lao say. Happy New Year!

Recipes:

Larb
Som tam