That Luang Festival

This weekend is the 450 Year Celebration of Vientiane being the capital city of Laos. Saturday afternoon there was supposed to be a parade. Then we heard it was canceled. We went to That Luang, the symbol of Laos, to walk around and see what was going on. This is the most important time for Buddhists to make merit. I'm not sure exactly if they make merit for themselves or for their dead relatives.... We asked some students who we saw, but it's hard to explain in a second language. There were tons of people at That Luang! And thousands of monks from every province.

 We saw monks from probably 8 to 88 years old. Some families will send their boys to be monks because then they know they will have food, a bed and an education.

 Many people taking their offerings to That Luang.

 Some of the things are made from banana leaves and flowers. One of these things costs about three dollars.

 Monks are collecting alms from some people. The monks were saying the names of people who had given.

The banks must be out of 500 and 1000 kip bills. Everyone had many small bills stuck in their offerings. This is a large offering of flowers and hundreds of 500 kip bills folded together.

There were so many people with so many offerings. It's sad to see them all going through all of this work for nothing. They're hoping that by burning candles and giving sticky rice, candy and money they can earn good things for themselves or others in the afterlife. How wonderful that nothing I do earns anything, but that I can have everlasting life through the one time offering of my Savior's life.