Cambodia New Year
Festival
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A Glimpse
Into Cambodian New Year Festival
Cambodia has
very long and protracted history and culture. We can see
that merriments related to culture are almost
uncountable. The Khmer New Year is one of the most
important cultural festivities in Cambodia, so it would
be of great values to take a little hint into what is
Khmer New Year.
Cambodian
(Khmer)
New Year is
celebrated every year in the middle of the month of
April. Khmer New Year does not single-mindedly aim at
merry-making or bringing entertainment, in fact, it contains
much more useful connotations to edify Cambodian
people's mentalities. One of the aims is to refresh the
undesirable livelihood in the past, and to enter into a
better livelihood in the closely upcoming year.
Cambodian
people can wish for better lives in the Khmer New Year,
if their
lives in the past year was good, they wish for the
better, and if their past lives were bad, they wish for
the better as well.
As we can see, the people buy new clothes, clean
the houses and Buddhist
pagodas and other religious shrines. Moreover, the
elderly clergymen advise the disputed parties to resolve
and to forget the revenge and reunion as one family
during this New Year.
Khmer
traditional games that are played during the New Year
have their unique meanings, |
besides the entertainments.
All of the game edifies the Cambodian youths, teenagers
to consolidate, use intellectual power to overcome the
obstacles, empower justice, values of forgiveness, power
of love, and other desirable ideologies.
Besides the Khmer traditional games, people always visit
their birth-land to prey for the dead ancestors, visit
their parents or grandparents (a number of people in
Phnom Penh are from the provinces, only a small number
of them were born in Phnom Penh and have parents and
grandparents in Phnom Penh). It is a nice reunion
between relatives; close and distant alike, in the
province. Of course, it is fund; having meal among a
huge number of people, playing Khmer traditional games
together, go sightseeing around the communities
surrounded by rice paddies and nature. But sadly, at the
end of the merriments, they have to separate to go back
to their work.
It is the law of the religion that people have to the
pagodas,
at least once during the Khmer New Year,
otherwise, they will be maliciously wished from their
dead ancestors, who are their grandparents, parents, or
other close relatives. Food, desserts, and other
everyday-use items are brought to the pagoda, and as the
people donate those stuffs to the Buddhist monks, the
people need to remind themselves the names of their dead
ancestors. The things the people donate through the
monks, are thought to reach to the hands of the dead
ancestors in the hell, the more they donate, the better
the dead ancestors will wish for them, and so they are
called "the grateful". We can also see people of all
ages like to reunite to play the traditional games in
the pagoda, because the pagoda has huge empty area,
suitable for the play, and because the pagoda is always
crowed, so it makes the play even more exciting.
The Khmer traditional games are:
Bose Angkogn, Chaol
Choung, traditional Khmer dancing, Leak Kanseng, the
ambitious king, Leang Ouk...etc. But I can't explain
these games into English words, because they are
complicated to translated into English words, and some
words aren't existed in the English vocabulary. But a
small number of people are negatively turning the
meanings of the traditional games, but playing
especially cards, Ha Poung, etc to gain profits.
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The Khmer New Year is always celebrated for three days;
15th, 16th, 17th every the month of April. But recently
I notice a brand new game which is "splashing water on
each other". I don't know whether splashing water on
each other is the Khmer traditional game or not.
About the Author
Lay Vicheka is the translator for Pyramid Translation
Co.,Ltd., the most well-known translation affiliation in
Cambodia. He is also a migration agent in that
affiliation. Lay Vicheka has also been a legal assistant
to a member of parliament. Since he has written the
loads, he is now titled "freelance writer". For all his
articles, just go to google and type his name: Lay
Vicheka, you will see all of his published on the sites. |
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