Happy Khmer New Year!

Or, as they say in Khmer, "Rek-ree-ay Chaul Chnam Thmey!" (It's a little difficult representing Khmer words in print because they use a different alphabet and I have to do the best I can to represent it phonetically.) The Khmer New Year holiday lasts for three days and today is the first day of it. My Khmer school had a party on Wednesday for all of the teachers & students. They explained a little bit about the background of Khmer New Year and the way it is celebrated. We played a few traditional games, danced, and ate. I wanted to find out a little more so I did some internet hunting. Here are a couple of sites that seem to have pretty good information about it if you're interested:

http://www.answers.com/topic/cambodian-new-year
http://www.tourismcambodia.com/tripplanner/events-in-cambodia/khmer-new-year.htm

During Khmer New Year most Cambodians travel to the rural province where their family is from and my neighbors down the street invited me to go with them to their province. I thanked them very much but declined as graciously as I could. As much as I appreciated the offer and would love to accept it, I don't feel I have enough of a handle on the language yet to be able to tactfully decline participation in some aspects of the celebration for reasons of conscience, and I don't want to burn any bridges with this family!

Here are a few of the games that I got to play at the party:
"Chol Chhoung (ចោល⁣ឈូង⁣) " A game played especially on the first nightfall of the Khmer New Year by two groups of boys and girls. Ten or 20 people comprise each group, standing in two rows opposite each other. One group throws the "chhoung" (a Cambodian scarf knotted into a ball at one end with a tail on the other) to the other group. When it is caught, it is rapidly thrown back to the first group. If someone is hit by the "chhoung," the whole group must dance to get the "chhoung" back while the other group sings.

"Leak Kanseng (លាក់⁣កន្សែង) " This is like "Duck Duck Goose" but with a twist. The participants sit in a circle. One holds a "kanseng" (Cambodian scarf/towel) that is twisted into a rope & walks around the circle while singing a song. He/she secretly tries to place the "kanseng" behind someone in the circle. The person behind whom it is placed must pick up the "kanseng" and the twist is that, instead of chasing the person who dropped the "kanseng" he/she uses it to beat the person sitting to the right while that individual tries to escape by running around the circle.

I don't know the name of another game we played but it involves throwing large brown pods from some kind of tree at the pods that the opposing team has set up in mounds of sand on their side. If you knock the right ones down your team wins but if you knock the wrong one down you lose. The winning team takes the pods so that they click against each other and hits them against their opponents bodies, usually on their knees.

The following video is kind of a "staged" representation but I thought it would be fun to include it so you can hear some Cambodian music and see some Cambodian dancing (one of my Khmer teachers was trying to teach me how to do the same kind of hand movements). Also the games we played are shown, although I don't think any Cambodians would really be playing them all dressed up like this. The dresses worn in this video are very much like the dresses that people wear here for weddings if they can afford it.