Giving Alms

Sunday morning we went to That Luang again to see the Alms Givings. Monks come from all over Laos to take part in this celebration. Every morning, some devout Buddhist women will prepare sticky rice and food to give to monks. Monks will walk from their temple to collect the food from these women and bless them with a prayer. It is the same few women who give food to the monks each day. That Luang was kinda like a huge food collection to give alms for the afterlife 

 Monks were lined all around That Luang sitting at tables with an offering plate and big bowl thing to collect the alms. People walked around distributing sticky rice, candy and money into the plates.

 There were thousands of people to celebrate. Early on Sunday morning they all sat to receive their communal blessing from a monk over a loud speaker. After the blessing they handed out their stuff.

 This is just like Christmas for the monks. They kept getting candy and money! Underneath their tables, they had garbage bags that they kept emptying their overflowing small bowls into so they could receive more stuff.

 They all had freshly shaven heads. Some of the boys are so young!

There were some nuns in white. They also shave their heads!

 Lines and lines of monks collecting alms!

 Many different shades of orangeish.

 Lao Buddhism is a mix of Buddhism, Hinduism, and animist religions. This tree had many candles and sticky rice around it.

 I don't know if the monks will actually eat the sticky rice they received here. They got dozens of sticky rice balls rolled from hundreds of fingers. It might not taste the best... But they might all get a little chubby eating all the candy they got!

 Even with all of the spiritual stuff, it was still a festival of fun. There were tons of these balloon popping games, ring toss and other games.There was tasty food and cold drinks.

One last picture of their collections of alms that they think gives them hope for the afterlife.