Khmer New Year continues.
on Mary In Cambodia (Cambodia), 21/Apr/2010 14:11, 34 days ago
Khmer New year continues.Khmer New Year officially lasts 3 days, as I think I already said. This year that was 13/14/15thof April. Very few people appeared for work on Friday 16th. It was probably to be expected that many people would take one day annual leave. Surely I thought, everybody would be back and ready to work on Monday 19th, I was wrong again, most offices were still closed and schools didn’t answer phones.Tuesday 20thwe went to visit one of our schools. We found the premises locked up, but the entire community was gathered in the grounds having a party. We received a royal welcome, drenched with pots of water, and every man in the place patted us on the cheeks with talcum powder. Why waste a good party, (though we weren’t dressed for the occasion, we had come to paint.) the local band was playing and so we joined in the dancing. Bottles of rice wine were passed around, which we declined , as we did have to drive back to town!   This was a real fun day, everyone was there, from children to old men and women, chatting, laughing, playing music and dancing their traditional Khmer dances. It was reminiscent of the threshing dances in Ireland when I was a child.             We had a great time. Later,I felt a bit sad that we in the west seem to have lost the ability to have fun. There was no cost, no invitations, no preparations, just a community getting together to enjoy themselves, and all were welcome, even us‘borangs’.