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Falling on different dates - people exchange invitations with friends and families in different villages to join in their celebrations - this festival is a commemoration of the Jataka, the life story of Lord Buddha as Prince Vestsantara. The story is recited in temples throughout the country and this is considered a particularly auspicious time for ordination as a monk. 
Held on the night of the full moon, this festival commemorates the original teachings of Lord Buddha given to over a thousand monks who came spontaneously to hear him speak. The festival is marked by grand parades of candle-bearing worshippers circling their local temples, merit making, and much religious music and chanting.-channa.jpg)
This is a harvest festival held at Songkhon District in Savannakhet Province. “Basi” ceremony is performed in order to give thanks to the land . 
Lao New Year is celebrated at the same time each year (April 14-16). This year, the 16th is the first day of the New Year.On the 13th, Buddha images are taken out of the temples to be cleansed with scented water by devotees, and placed on special temporary altars within the compounds of “wats” (temples).Devotees gather the scented water falling off the images, to take home and use it to pour on friends and relatives, as an act of cleansing and purification before entering the New Year. On the evening of the 15th, the images are returned to their proper shriners within the temples.Boun Pi Mai is a time for much joyous celebration, with good deeds and prayers in anticipation the New Year.
Chanting, religious instruction, and candlelit processions highlight this temple festival in celebration of the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha. .jpg)
With its origins in pre-Buddhist rain-invoking ceremonies, this festival now coincides with the Laos Visakha Puja celebrations. Parades, songs, dances and partying all lead to an explosive climax as huge, ornate, homemade bamboo rockets are blessed and fired into the skies to invite the rains. Rocket-makers earn both merit and honour if their creations fly high. This dramatic festival is also celebrated in Northeast Thailand. 
Marking the beginning of the three-month Buddhist Lent, which commences at the full moon in July and continues until the full moon in October, this is considered a particularly auspicious time for Lao men to enter the monkhood and is marked by numerous ordination ceremonies. 
Devoted to remembering and paying respect to the dead, it is marked by the macabre ceremony of exhuming previously buried bodies, cleaning the remains, and then cremating them on the night of the full moon. Relatives then present gifts to the monks who have chanted on behalf of those who have passed away. 
Marking the end of the three-month Buddhist Lent on the day of the full moon. Monks are at last permitted to leave the temple and are presented with gifts. One particularly beautiful aspect is Lai Hua Fai. On the eve of Awk Phansaa people gather at the nearest body of water to release dozens of small banana-leaf boats decorated with candles, incense and small flowers, in a celebration similar to the Thai Loy Krathong. 
In riverside towns such as Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Savannakhet, the highly competitive Bun Nam boat races (reua suang) are held during the same time as Awk Phansaa. Smaller communities sometimes hold these races on National Day on 2nd December 
Though celebrated at many temples around the country, this festival is traditionally centred at That Luang in Vientiane. Fairs, beauty contests, music and fireworks take place throughout the week of the full moon, and end with a candlelight procession (wien thien) around the temple of That Luang. 
Streets strewn with national flags and banners, processions, parades, and speeches are the highlights of this celebration for the victory of the proletariat in 1975.