SKLM Grassroots Innovation

The important goals of this grass roots project is to introduce Lao-Americans and others of foreign origin who have experience and who may not have had opportunities to experience traditional Lao culture. The
workshop will increase attendance member's understanding and as well as preserving and disseminating arts and culture for future generations to carry on.

What we will do include:
- The Lao New Year or Water Festival, an important event on the Buddhist calendar. It's a vibrant, an invaluable festival and part of the Lao heritage that represents generosity, family values, community, society and religion that allows the Lao people to practice traditions that originated from the prayers and blessings of the Buddhist Monks. The event will take place at around the mid of April or mid May 2022, at either in Brooklyn Park or Bloomington (it's more like a center of traffic for the Lao community).
Events include:- Religious ceremony - Alms-offerings to monks - Ba-Ci ceremony - Bathing of Buddha images - Pouring scented water upon seniors to ask for their blessing - Traditional on stage performance.
Class of :-
- 12 Rituals (pronounce as Heet - Sip - Song): Refers to the 12-month tradition that is related to Buddhist principles. Beliefs and agricultural lifestyle that Lao people have practiced since ancient times. Lao people
focus the great importance of the 12 Rituals tradition and adhere to it consistently as a true Laotian identity.The word Heet is referring to a tradition that has been passed down through tradition Twelve is a
tradition that follows all twelve lunar months.
- 14 Practices (pronounce as Kong - Sip - See): It is a social statute of the Lao people as a principle of treating each other for people of various statuses since ancient times.
- Religious rituals and Beliefs: Teaching and training religious rituals and beliefs from birth until the end of life. It has a profound meaning that shows the cultural ways of different races. The paramount identity of the
ritual is that it is an important channel of communication between man, nature and the supernatural.
- Making Ba-Ci: It will be used at the ceremony to invoke the Kwan (Lao word for spirit), which in specific terms is explained as an ancient belief in Laos that the human being is a union of 32 organs and that the
Kwan watch over and protect each one of them.
- Making Sandalwood flowers: The Sandalwood flowers are symbolically flowers made from wood of the sandalwood tree. It has been used in cremation ceremonies in Laos and Thailand for hundreds of years. Laying sandalwood flowers at a funeral it is the final mourning for the deceased, believed to send the souls of the deceased to a better world. It is also last thing a living person will do for the person that we love. .
- Reginal Food: There are training courses and cooking competitions. The geography of each region in Laos greatly affects the diet of the local people. Most of the raw materials used for food preparation are naturally.