The first weekend of my stay here just happened to be one of the two biggest annual festivals in Laos. The boat festival is celebrated on the last full moon at the end of the rainy season. This is the main street of Luang Prabang.
Thousands of these "boats" are handmade by the women from banana trees, leaves and marigolds. A stick or two of incense and a candle is added.
Everyone in town comes to the river front with their own little marigold boat. People light the candle and incense, say a prayer and then float their boat on the Mekong River. Many people also put money on their boat to welcome wealth into their lives. Here the local children have jumped in the river after my floating boat to retrieve the money I put on my boat:
Enormous, ornate boats were constructed at the local temples as a religious offering during this festival. Hundreds of men carried these boats down the steps to the rive to float them down river.
There were dozens of these large boats and each was more elaborate and beautiful than the last. What a night!
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