On April 13th, people of Cambodia celebrate the Khmer New Year. The celebration took only three days, but most of Khmers will celebrate it for one week. All the Khmer people around the world are longing to celebrate it. It is the most important celebration for them. There are a lot of traditional customs they have to follow during this blessed day to make the celebration becomes more meaningful.
The New Year is a special time to celebrate and have fun. They have the essential custom of playing games to celebrate it together with relatives and friends. You can hear the Khmer traditional songs played on every street while they dance and play games following the music’s beat.
On the first day, they clean and decorate their houses with colorful lights and set up an altar to welcome this New Year spirit. The altar is decorated by placing flowers, candles, incense, food, drink, a bowl of scented water and banana leaves. All these things are often shaped into various figures. The people will wear their colorful traditional dress or new clothes during the celebration.
On the second and third day of the New Year, the people will have family gatherings. They will visit their families together wishing and exchange gifts with each other. The people also visit the monasteries on the second day to say special prayers for their ancestors by the monks.
During the three days, those who stayed at home will usually play cards or feast with friends and relatives while people in towns dance until midnight. It will be eventful at every place and everyone seems to be very friendly to each other. All the past conflicts between them will be flushed away and they will set their minds to look for a better future.
We also celebrated the wonderful festivity playing with our neighbors. We gathered in circles, singing and dancing to the traditional beat. It was a whole lot of fun and we enjoyed it so much. Soursdey Chnam Thmey, have a happy Khmer New Year everyone. Rejoice!!
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