Davong Marie

Our family visited Wat Praznamit for a laotion ceremony/ tradition when a person passes away. I am not familiar with the ceremony, however it is a beautiful part of the culture. I grew up in a church, however my parents wanted to still teach me the culture and include me in another community.  

I have been showing alot of American style wedding photos. Today I wanted to switch gears and show a Lao traditional wedding (baci wedding). I've posted pics on the blog before, however this post is a lot more in depth. Souwan and I will have a traditional Lao wedding as well as an American wedding. Lao weddings take place in the morning or in the evening (sun down). Ours will be in the morning, later in the afternoon is our American wedding. To learn more about lao ceremony visit http://www.laos-guide-999.com/Laos-wedding.html To see more of a lao wedding visit http://joshjonesphoto.blogspot.com/2010/10/traditional-laos-wedding-photos-vanida.html photo source   source source source It takes place at the home of the bride's family. The groom's procession ( Hae keuy) will be the beginning of the wedding day. The family of the groom walks him to the bride's home and sings/asks questions to the bride's family. A fun exchange before entering the bride'...

(this photo by www.nyenoona.com ) We travelled to Washington DC for the annual July 4th festival at Wat Lao Buddhavong. The festival had a lot of Thai/Lao food, shopping, music/concert, cultural education, and fundraising towards lao landmines, and unexploded ordnance -MAG. Many people showed up to the festival despite the storm that took out power for so many and the miserable heat (111 degrees). A senator of Virginia attended the festival along with some well known Thai singers. One of them being Maitai. My mother waited for approx 4 hours in the heat to hear him perform. I did not make it long enough to see him so my aunt caught a photo of my mom and the singer. (her blog www.nyenoona.com ) It was hot, but a fun day at the temple. Coming soon photos of the rest of my DC trip. Stay tuned!

The next couple of weekends Thai & Laotions around the world will be celebrating (Songkran) New Year 2012 (Pee Mai=New Year). Wat Prazanimit in North Carolina celebrated this weekend among others. Our family will be going to a couple of temples to celebrate.     Almsgiving had good attendance this year. (Even a majority of my family were able to be in attendance-rare sight. Cheers to that!) The temple was packed-with people even sitting outside. It was a warm day too.  (click photos for larger size) After almsgiving (begins early in the morning and ends in the afternoon) we head to the outside grounds to celebrate. My favorite part of New Year! There is food, pageant/parade for the New Year, and traditional dancing/music. BTW I reunited with my traditional lao dance teacher!! We became so nostalgic. She was THE BEST teacher. With the pageant also brought back memories. Wayyy back in the old days- haha. I was runne...