Davong Marie

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'

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 runner up in 2002.  A very honorable pa

The month of May is Asian history month. In celebration of Asian culture, Food Lion hosted the Asian Festival 2011 at Ramsey park on Saturday. It is off of Lake Norman in North Carolina. This is an annual event that encoporates the many countries of Asia. Each country showcases their culture with informational booths and food stands. One of my favorite parts of the festival is watching the dragon boat race on the lake. Companies {Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Food Lion, & Natural Piedmont Gas} from all over the area take part as teams to compete against others. After watching the boat race vendors will open their stands ready to serve lunch. There was food from Thailand, Laos, Phillipines, and Korea. We had a bite to eat from Laos and Phillipines. Some of our family members were working their tushes off at the Laos food stand. Their stand had a long line that lasted all day. A great day for them! Then we headed to learn about other cultures at their booths.