The Festival of Light
A free Mid-Autumn Festival coloring page. US Letter, portrait, ready to print.
Download the PDF — freeNo email, no sign-up, no account. Print it as many times as you like, at home, in a classroom or in a library.
From the story “The Festival of Light” in Once Upon a Mid-Autumn Moon in Laos — eleven bedtime tales for ages 4–10, each with a word search and a coloring page of its own.
A river made of small lights
Kham plans to build the biggest, brightest heua fai, or fire-boat, in town, and covers it with so many candles it can barely float. On the night, hundreds and then thousands of other boats go onto the Mekong until the water shimmers from bank to bank. Kham forgets his own while he watches. His grandfather says no single light could make a river of stars.
The picture shows a whole town floating big glowing fire-boats down the Mekong at night, crowds on the bank, and the full moon reflected.
Lai Heua Fai on the Mekong
Lai Heua Fai, the Festival of Light, is the fire-boat festival that closes Buddhist Lent. Whole towns send glowing boats down the Mekong, and in the story some are no bigger than a child's two cupped hands.
Looking at the boats
- Kham wanted his boat to be the brightest. What changed his mind?
- His grandfather says we float them together. Where else do small things add up?
- Pick one boat on the page as yours. What makes it different from its neighbor?
A floor-sized Mekong
Spread blue paper on the floor as the river. With an adult's help, fold small paper boats and slide them across together, each with a yellow glow colored on.