Pimai Lao/Lao New Year, Lao PDR

The three-day Lao New Year is a purification festival, during which the Buddhist images in the household and the temples are ritually cleaned with sacred water. On the streets, locals engage in the usual Pimai antics—Soo Kwan (tying cotton strings around people’s wrists), water splashing, and sand stupa building. You’ll also find processions of people in traditional Lao costumes, beauty pageants, even boat races on the Mekong River. Luang Prabang puts on Lao PDR’s biggest Pimai Lao parade, with dancers and drummers in traditional costume, marching Hmong and Khmu ethnic tribespeople, and masked actors portraying characters from Lao myth. (Tourism Laos)