In most cases, festivals in Laos are called “Boun”, which is blessed. They mean that doing good to be blessed. This is the celebration of the Laos New Year and is a combination of merriment and meditation. Like almost festivals in this time of the year in other Southest Asian countries, Boun Pi Mai is celebrated with parades, dancing, singing and splashing water to each other. The religious aspects of the festival are the most apparent in Luang Prabang, where Buddhism is worshiped. The festival is organized in three days. In the first day, people clean their houses, prepare scented water and flowers to decorate their home. In the afternoon, they assemble in pagodas and temples to hear the Monks’ lecture and pray Buddha for the best things in new year. They take fragrant water with them to make Buddha statues cleaned in pagodas. The water which drops from the statues is collected and taken home to be poured onto friends and relatives as an act of cleaning and purification, or even for fortune. At the end of the ceremony, people release animals like fish, turtle, crab for peace in new year.