✦ zenith calendar · the theravada (laos) almanac
the lao lunar year's buddhist days in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in its own tradition's words.
theravada (laos) is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds the buddhist days of laos by the lao lunar calendar, as the lao government publishes them, one year at a time.
each day is copied from the published lists, not worked out on your phone, and a year not yet announced shows nothing rather than a guessed day. tap a day and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
lunar · the lao lunar months, announced a year at a time
the full moon of the 11th lao month
the end of phansa, the rains retreat, remembered as the day the buddha came back down to earth after teaching his mother in the tāvatiṃsa heaven.
people bring alms to the temple in the morning and walk the wian tian by candlelight. that night, lai heua fai, they float small boats of banana stem with candles, incense and flowers down the mekong and the other rivers.
the full moon of the 6th lao month
one of the holiest days of the lao buddhist year, remembering the buddha's birth, his awakening and his passing into final nibbāna on the one day.
people rise early to make merit at the temple, giving alms, keeping the precepts and hearing the dhamma. in the evening many walk the wian tian, three times around the temple hall with a candle, incense and lotus flowers.
asalaha bousa
the full moon of the 8th lao month
the beginning of phansa, the three-month rains retreat. in laos it is also the day of the buddha's first teaching, kept on the same full moon.
people bring the monks alms, especially sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, and what a monk needs for the season. the monks stay at their own temple for study and meditation, and many lay people keep a vow of their own for phansa.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, theravada (laos) puts its days on their dates on that ring, in lilac, the colour every buddhist reckoning wears. its mark is ພຸ, the first syllable of "buddha" in lao script.
each day carries three short paragraphs in its notes: what it is, where it comes from as its own tradition tells it, and how it is kept.
theravada (laos) arrives locked, so nothing in it changes by accident. the lock guards your hand, not your eye: you can still read it, shine it or eclipse it. one tap unlocks it, and then it is yours to rename, recolour or add to.
tap its chip in the legend to eclipse it (kept, but not drawn) and tap again to bring it back. nothing is deleted either way.
theravada (laos) shares one sky with your own commitments. like every almanac that comes with the app, it never counts toward the almanacs you can make for free, and it lives on your phone: zenith calendar has no server of its own.
✦ zenith calendar · the sky around it
theravada (laos) is a single layer. beneath it is a whole calendar drawn as the sky, your year an orbit round the sun, and every part of it answers your touch.
the sun stands at the centre and the year rings round it, with today's earth riding at today's place, its small moon beside it. tap the ring anywhere else and a faint ghost earth waits on that day.
drag along the ring and the days pass under your finger, the big date and the day's list following as you go. lift, and the day you stopped on stays picked.
tap the small moon beside today's earth and you dive into the week. the moon above shows its phase, named underneath; swipe the dates and each week brings its own.
tap the sun and the ring tips on its edge into a ladder of years. in the week, pull the moon firmly down and the month opens, the moon resting half off its foot.
zenith calendar has no server of its own. tap the gear and switch on "nothing comes in" or "nothing leaves this phone"; lift them, and every almanac is back exactly as it was.
theravada (laos) is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
theravada (laos) · buddhist reckonings ·
Boun Ok Phansa falls on 26 October 2026, the full moon of the eleventh Lao month, as the Lao government lists it. In Zenith Calendar it sits on the ring of your year in the theravada (laos) almanac.
Lai heua fai, the boats of light, is the evening of Boun Ok Phansa, when people float small boats of banana stem with candles, incense and flowers down the Mekong and other rivers.
Boun Visakha Bousa fell on 1 May 2026, the full moon of the sixth Lao month. It remembers the Buddha's birth, awakening and passing into final nibbāna.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called theravada (laos): the Buddhist days of Laos by the Lao lunar calendar, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
They keep the same full moons, each by its own lunar calendar and as its own government announces them, so a day can fall on a different date. They are separate almanacs, so you light the one you keep.
Each day is copied as the Lao government's published lists date it, one year at a time. A year not yet announced shows nothing rather than a guessed day.