Pimai is one of the most important annual festivals, particularly in Luang Prabang. The small stupas of sand, decorated with streamers, in wat compounds are symbolic requests for health and happiness over the next year. There is usually a 3-day holiday. Similar festivals are celebrated in Thailand, Cambodia and Burma. The lunar new year begins in mid-April and practically the entire country comes to a halt and celebrates.
Houses are cleaned, people put on new clothes and Buddha images are washed with lustral water.
In the wats, offerings of fruit and flowers are made at various altars and votive mounds of sand or stone are fashioned in the courtyards. Later the citizens take to the streets and douse one another with water, which is an appropriate activity as April is usually the hottest month of the year. This festival is particularly picturesque in Luang Prabang, where it includes elephant processions. Visakha Puja Celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha, celebrated in local wats. The rocket festival is a Buddhist rain-making festival.