Laotian Birthday Traditions

by Phuc Sayasone
(San Francisco, California)

Laotian fish head with eyes cooked in eight star animal spices
(related to birth year)

I grew up in the small village of Ban Ban, Laos, not far from Vietnam. Birthdays and New Year are the two most important holidays. Birthdays are celebrated with lavish amounts of food, which is rare, because meals are usually modest.

Most importantly, the "eight star" and "twelve star" calendars are celebrated with reverence.

I was an only child and lived with my parents and maternal grandmother - a small family by Laotian standards. When a birthday approached, my mum made a trip to the town of Vientiane for foods and spices related to the person's birthday.

I usually went with her. It was ever so exciting! Once we left the village of Ban Ban, it became a whole new world.

Laos usually celebrated the "eight star animal," not to get confused with the more accepted "twelve star animal" calendar. Both are celebrated in Laos, but most people in the North usually abide by the more ancient "eight star animal."

It is simple to find out your "eight star animal." If you are male, you start at the tiger. If you are a female, you start at the ox. You count backwords from your age until you arrive at the animal of your birth year, and that is your star animal. My grandmother's birthday was easy to celebrate, she was a cat. We could find her special food items in the village of Ban Ban.

I am a Rasasy, which is a mythical lion-like cat. So when we went into Vientiane, we looked for foods that were as close to the Rasasy as possible. My mum would get spices which she said had mythical elements. We got sea food like squid to make traditional Lao barbeque.

There is one food which we got at home, and that was a single fish. It was cooked in the spices which are related to our birth year animal, and the eyes of the fish are left intact. It is placed before the birthday person and they pluck each of its eyes out and eat them.

I've done this a few times myself, but most of my memories are of my grandmother performing this. She did it with perfection! Once that task was done, everyone would erupt into howls of approval.

Each neighbor and non-family member was required to kiss the left hand of the birthday person. My grandmother endured this quite well, but I would always have a fit of giggles to have my hand kissed over and over.

Laotian birthdays are not observed with cake and presents. Instead, there is plenty of food and a special dish wth the elements of the "eight star animal" for the birthday person. People gather together to eat and observe the importance of another birthday.

Much Laotian birthday tradition is based on the ideas of prosperity and long life. My mum often said that is why my grandmother lived so long.