Catch the ball and get married
Our next stop after the crater valley was at our guide's village and his home. We all chowed down as we shared our respective market eats and assisted each other in identifying the food. TV was great as he answered all our questions about Lao culture and history as well as our questions about a strange practice associated with their New Year's Festival (which seems to last for a couple of days in the last week of December) by then in full swing around the village.
Women dressed up in luminescent coloured traditional dress stand in a long line, umbrella over the head. With the other hand a woman will throw a ball to a guy opposite her who stands as part of a line of boys. He throws the ball back. The process is repeated innumerable times. The point? Apparently this was traditionally some kind of match finding ritual/technique which would take place at this time of year. You will know when a successful marriage match has been made when the girl and guy throw the ball to each other for a while. Sound a bit shaky? Well, we think it is by far a better practice (and with a higher statistical likelihood of success) than the other former practice of kidnapping the girl of your liking, against her will, to your dad's house. The divorce rate related to this method, TV tells us, is very high.
After sending a cup of local whiskey around the circle we were ready for our trip to the famous Plain of Jars...
Women dressed up in luminescent coloured traditional dress stand in a long line, umbrella over the head. With the other hand a woman will throw a ball to a guy opposite her who stands as part of a line of boys. He throws the ball back. The process is repeated innumerable times. The point? Apparently this was traditionally some kind of match finding ritual/technique which would take place at this time of year. You will know when a successful marriage match has been made when the girl and guy throw the ball to each other for a while. Sound a bit shaky? Well, we think it is by far a better practice (and with a higher statistical likelihood of success) than the other former practice of kidnapping the girl of your liking, against her will, to your dad's house. The divorce rate related to this method, TV tells us, is very high.
After sending a cup of local whiskey around the circle we were ready for our trip to the famous Plain of Jars...
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