Good evening all of you
Cambodia is one party after another. I put in what the Khmer New Year is all about. Please pray for people who travel by their thousands to the provinces. The roads are really dangerous right now as people are drinking a lot and partygoers celebrate from morning to night. The municipality even gave buses for free for people to take to their homelands. We are waiting for the weekend to go and partake in the water fights in town. It is always fun to load the truck with water and the kids on the back, while Dad and Uncle Abraham sit inside, close the windows and aircon on, and sip nice coffee while war raging outside. Will send you pictures of this event.
Traditional Khmer New Year or Chaul Chnam Thmei is held in April each year. Roads across the country are lined with excited Cambodians armed with water pistols and buckets spilling over with water. Music blasts over crackling speakers and children squeal with laughter as passing motorbikes slow down to receive the ritual Cambodia New Year soaking of water and talcum powder heading their way.
This can only mean one thing in Cambodia – it’s Khmer New Year. Every April, cities and towns across the country empty out as locals make the annual pilgrimage home to celebrate the new year with their families. As the most important celebration in the Cambodian calendar, Choul Chhnam Thmei is a time to celebrate, feast on food, and relax in laidback provincial life.
Spread across three days – although most Cambodians take the full week off – this is when locals celebrate the end of the harvest season and the start of a new year. The official dates vary slightly from year to year, with Khmer New Year 2024 running from 13 to 16 April.
Khmer New Year Traditions
Day 1: Moha Songkran: This is the first day when it is believed a new god or angel is appointed to offer protection for the year ahead. To welcome the ethereal being, people clean and decorate their houses, and wear new clothes. Offerings of fruits, incense, lotus flowers, and drinks – often cans of Coca-Cola and even beer – are also left at the spirit houses that guard entrances.
Day 2: Vanabat: This is the Day of Giving when gifts are handed to parents and elders. Children also receive new clothes, and money and used goods are donated to the poor. Visits are also made to the pagoda to give offerings and attend ceremonies dedicated to deceased ancestors.
Day 3: Tanai Lieang Saka: This is the main celebration of the Cambodian New Year and means a new beginning. Monks are visited in the morning for blessings, so expect to see Cambodians armed with offerings flocking to pagodas from the early hours. This is followed by colorful celebrations in the afternoon, which often spill into the night.
It is the Khmer New Year holiday. The FGCC community link teachers are doing a No Apologies Workshop with the Teenagers this whole week. Twans will teach about Boundaries, Relationships, Premarital sex, and its consequences. Other topics are looking at Media Influence, Healthy Relationships, and Peer Pressure. 39 Kids came today. Please pray for wisdom, that we all be able to reach the kids, and for them to be open and honest.
Hope your week is full of fun and games and if not make time for it.
Love
Rossouw-clan
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