Laos: Torches, krathongs and fires to keep warm illuminate the banks of the Mekong River, Bun Nam Festival, Vientiane. In Laos, the Awk Phansaa (Awk Watsa, full moon) Festival celebrates the end of the three-month rains retreat. Monks are allowed to leave the monasteries to travel and are presented with robes, alms bowls and other requisites of the renunciative life. On the eve of Awk Phansaa many people fashion small banana-leaf boats carrying candles, incense and other offerings, and float them in rivers, a custom known as Lai Hua Fai, similar to Loy Krathong in Thailand.

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Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
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