Festivals in Laos

Laos has a number of national holidays held throughout the year – most of which have religious origins. The specific calendar dates of these festivals thus move with the lunar calendar, and are celebrated on different dates each year. Some holidays are celebrated throughout the country, whilst others are specific to certain ethnic regions only. There can be temple holidays, boat races, elephant festivals and many others. But the biggest and brightest of all is New Year. Laos’s different peoples calculate New Year on different dates, but the two main ones are the Buddhist New Year in April, and the Khmong New Year in December.