Celebrating Tet, Vietnamese New Year, in Laos - Luang Prabang, Laos

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All this week has been a celebration of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, by Lao residents of Vietnamese descent. The grandmother at my guesthouse, who I have become very fond of, was born in Vietnam and has been arranging a special dinner. (In Laos, most visitors stay in guesthouses, which are like small hotels inhabited by the families who own and manage them).

Children have been making fires in metal tins on the street and burning real and fake shoes, to symbolize putting the past year behind them in preparation for the new. Homes have been thoroughly cleaned, and monks called in for new year’s blessings and baci ceremonies.

The family at my guesthouse has been cooking for two days straight. They arranged a big table in the entry-way/dining room and set it with plates and spoons. All the prepared food was brought out to the table and left so the spirits could eat. Once the spirits had been given a sufficient amount of time to dine, the food was cleared from the table and brought back to the kitchen. There, the family cleverly rearranged it and reserved it, this time for the consumption of family and friends. Because Grandma and I are buddies, my friend Gabriel and I were invited to dine at the long merry table. (This family is far richer and more westernized than the families I have described dining with in the little villages. Which is why we dined at a table, on chairs, and not on the floor).

Almost nobody spoke English but everyone was very friendly and happily enjoying the meal. Many people became quickly intoxicated, as the village chief was making repeated rounds, distributing shots of Lao Lao, the strongest I’ve had yet, and not taking no for an answer. There was loads of delicious food, especially meat, including spare ribs, pork-jerky, chicken vegetable soup, boiled chicken, stir-fried pork and vegetables and green sticky rice casserole with tuna. The family insisted on keeping our beer glasses full, although no one else was drinking beer. The women in the family flitted around, making sure water glasses were full and serving and reserving the guests. Grandma walked around, watching everyone, smiling and chatting, loving the gathering of friends. She didn't sit and eat, telling me she had eaten earlier in the kitchen. Grandma came to Laos as a baby and has never been back to Vietnam. She told me Vietnam was dangerous and bad because there were many thieves. But I believe she grew up celebrating the Vietnamese traditions of her parents and so she carries on that legacy.

I met the family’s oldest daughter, Linda, who lives nearby with her Belgian husband and their baby. Three years ago the Belgian was visiting the city, staying in this guesthouse, when he met Linda and fell in love. He took her with him when he went back to work, cooking on a yacht, and she was given a chance to see some of the world. When she had a baby, they returned to Laos, where her family is always around and nobody’s ever too busy to help. The baby is blond-haired with blue-eyes. Linda’s father was a young American soldier stationed in Laos during the Vietnam War, who married her mother, then a fourteen-year old Lao girl. When Vietnam fell and the Americans pulled out of Laos, Linda’s mother would not leave her own mother behind, and he wasn’t allowed to take both of them. So he left her and returned to America, never to be heard from again. Linda was not yet born and grew up completely Lao, only looking half-white. It was very hard for Linda’s mother, a pregnant fourteen-year old deserted by her husband. But it was a terrible time for everyone, and she is now the matriarch of the family, happily remarried with five almost-grown children.

Once again, I was delighted to be invited to share in a special celebration like this. The hospitality I felt was extensive and genuine; typical of the huge-hearted Lao people. Always happy to welcome another kind person to their private dinner table and share everything they have.

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