Page 43 - เธเธฃเธฐเน€เธเธ“เธตเธชเธเธเธฃเธฒเธเธ•เน
P. 43
Songkran Festival in Cambodia
People in the world always say that New Year celebrates their happy festival. They usually
schedule and prepare it differently, depend on their belief and tradition. For Cambodian have
hold it since past till the present.
The festival usually is in 3 days period. The first day is โ€MOHA SANGKRANโ€ the second
day is โ€VORNBORTHโ€ and the third day is โ€THNGAI LIENG SAKโ€. For that time they start to
change the old year when the angle comes to get the duties from the former angles were
scheduled clearly.
A few days before the Khmer New Yearโ€s day, they prepared some food, clean their
house, bought some news and so on. When the New Yearโ€s Day comes, they prepare something
such as 5 candles, 5 incenses, a pair of 5 Baysey, a pair of Baysey Baklam, a pair of Slathor
(a ceremonial ornament made with a banana tree trunk bake), a tray of cigarettes, some flowers
and some fruits to sacrifice to the new heaven. When every is ready, they sit together near
that place and light the candles to pray for happiness from the new heaven and start to pray
before breaking each other. On the other hand, we have different celebrations during these
3 days of New Yearโ€s Day.
On the first day, they take some food to offer the monks at the monastery in the evening,
they gather the sand to build up a sandal mountain around the pagoda or around the bany
tree in the early evening, and they some drink to the monks and invite them to bany.
On the second day, children give some new clothes and money to their parents and
grandparents. They also give some gift to their maids and poor people. In the evening, they
go to build up the sandal mountain and start to bany that they consider it a Cholamony
Chedey and ask the monks to bony and offer them the food to dedicate this sin to the spirit
of the ancestor.
Songkran Tradition เน’เน‘
