Post-monsoon Festivals Light Up Mekong Region, From  Vientiane To Yangon

By Vijian Paramasivam

PHNOM PENH, Nov 5 (Bernama) -- Millions across the weather-worn Greater Mekong Subregion are welcoming November with festivals that mark the close of the monsoon season and the arrival of harvest, travel and tranquillity days ahead.

From Laos, Myanmar to Thailand, streets and temples are lighting up with candlelit processions, hot-air balloon releases, river offerings and traditional fairs, as communities gather to celebrate religious and traditional events in a communal atmosphere.

“The end of the monsoon provides the opportunity for large festivals, but the festival's meaning and timing are dictated by the major religious calendar (the full moon).

“It is a profound sense of Buddhist merit-making, thanksgiving for the harvest and reverence for nature's life-giving cycles,” Phnom Penh-based Unnalom Monastery Abbot Venerable Dr Yon Seng Yeath told Bernama.

Laotians are celebrating the week-long That Luang Festival, known for its candle wax castle procession, cultural events and trade fairs. 

In Myanmar, people have been busy hosting Tazaungdaing festival, welcomed with religious and traditional events across the country.

Hot air balloon contests, candle and oil lamp lighting, traditional bullock cart racing, and bovine beauty competitions, and robe-weaving contests and Kathina robe offering ceremonies, are grassroots events bringing excitement, especially to rural folks. 

In neighbouring Thailand, festival-goers are preparing for the most cherished Loi Krathong, to pay homage to the goddess of water, in the coming days. 

“(It is all about) communal unity. The pleasant, post-monsoon weather encourages large-scale gatherings, allowing communities to unite, preserve cultural traditions through music, dance, and ceremonies, and strengthen social bonds. 

“These major religious and public fairs bring immense joy and serve a vital psychological and social function in countries that frequently suffer from natural disasters, especially the annual stress and damage caused by monsoon flooding and typhoons,” said Seng Yeath.

But Bon Om Touk or water festival celebration to mark the end of the monsoon season has been scaled down as a respect to those affected by the Cambodia-Thailand border conflict. 

The annual dragon boat race, a major crowd-puller in Phnom Penh, has been shelved. 

Vietnam continues to feel the impact of Typhoon Kalmaegi, which swept through the central region, with at least 40 lives lost in recent days amid severe flooding.

The Greater Mekong Subregion comprises countries along the Mekong River — China (Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam — and is home to about 300 million people.

Agriculture and fishing remain the backbone of these communities, many of which have endured months of heavy rainfall, gales, flooding and landslides that destroyed livelihoods and infrastructure.

-- BERNAMA