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Festivals and Parties  » A Glimpse Into Cambodian New Year Festival

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

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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.

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.