Lao New year

Temple Run

For Lao New Year, our team follows a highly spiritual tradition: loading a truck with staff, volunteers, water guns, buckets, and enough water ammunition to start a small flood. The mission is simple. Drive from temple to temple, survive the journey, and arrive with at least some water still inside the truck. Along the way, every passing pickup, scooter, and group of locals becomes either a target or a threat. Usually both.

Between battles, we stop at temples to take part in the traditions behind the festival. Scented flower water is poured over Buddha statues as a sign of respect and renewal. Monks tie white cotton armbands around our wrists and offer blessings for the year ahead. A few minutes later, we are back on the road, armed with buckets and water guns, immediately undoing any appearance of dignity we may have gained at the temple.

What Is Lao New Year?

Lao New Year, known as Pi Mai Lao (ປີໃໝ່ລາວ), is the most important festival in Laos and is celebrated every year in mid-April. Similar celebrations take place in Thailand, where it is known as Songkran (สงกรานต์), as well as in parts of Cambodia and Myanmar. The festival marks the traditional New Year according to Buddhist cultural traditions and coincides with the hottest time of the year.

Water is at the heart of the celebration. Originally, the practice was not about soaking strangers with buckets and water guns. Instead, people gently poured scented flower water over Buddha statues, monks, elders, and family members. The water symbolizes purification, washing away misfortune from the previous year and bringing good luck, health, and prosperity for the year to come.

Over time, these rituals evolved into the large-scale water fights that visitors see today. While the streets may look like a giant water battle, the tradition is rooted in respect, renewal, and community.

Laos follows the Buddhist Era calendar, which counts years from the traditional date of the Buddha's passing. As a result, the year number is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar used in most Western countries. While much of the world is in 2026, the Lao New Year welcomes the year 2569 BE (Buddhist Era).