Religion

On the first day of my philosophy class at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Geshe Kelsang Wangmo-la begun her presentation of the Buddha’s life with an assurance that despite her maroon monastic robes and closely shaven head, she was not there to convert anyone. Instead, Geshe-la instructed us to listen over the coming months with an open mind. “Take the bits you find useful,” she said, “and just leave the rest.”

My husband and I were both born and raised Jewish. We both identify strongly with our Jewish faith. Our children attend/ed Hebrew and religious school and all four will be Bar/Bat Mitzvahed (two down, two to go). Yet for many reasons, the most prominent being that we had family members attending, we made the choice to send our children to an Episcopalian school. A school that explains in its mission statement: “Our goal as an Episcopal school is to nurture the spiritual development of each person and to welcome everyone to our community.” And for the most part, we have all found this to be true.

As we approach Lao New Year, I wanted to take this opportunity to not only highlight traditional practices associated with the celebration, but also begin a conversation on the relevancy of centuries-old traditions in twenty-first century Lao American communities. As we begin this conversation, there are three things I will focus on: 1) an overview of the three-day celebration including myths associated with the Nang Sangkhan, 2) Lao New Year as practiced by Lao Americans through archival research and personal anecdotes, and lastly, 3) relevancy of the myths and practices in the twenty-first century through a community development perspective.