That's what it is called. It isn't a celebration of the new year. It may be like that for other countries around Southeast Asia, but not here.
Here it is a grand celebration for the river that changes directions. It's the only river in the world that does so.
I wrote a little bit about it here in the ICHope Blog.
It's short, you can read that. I'm gonna use the same pictures, don't mind me.
So, like I said, the kids spent most of the day getting ready for it. I appeared at CICFO early-ish and figured we'd chill and watch a movie. Not so. I happened to appear while there was a Korean drama going on and those are not to be disturbed. And we didn't want to tire the children too much by having them watch a movie after the drama. They were to take a nap.
...oh...kay...
So we played card games for a bit. Pattica took the older children into one of the rooms and they prepared for the dancing. Not really sure what they were doing, I wasn't in there, but they burned incense sticks. I think they were talking about the history of the dances and/or the passing of the King Father.
Which is why the country didn't have a large celebration.
The country hasn't had a giant water festival in years. Why?
Well in 2010 a bridge collapsed and killed about 400 people. (source, Sophanuth) Apparently the CICFO kids (at least some of them) were very close to the bridge when it happened. Also- it didn't seem like a surprise. Sophanuth says that it looked like it was going to break. It wasn't like the Golden Gate crumbling. Not that it's questionable stability makes in any more or less tragic, I'm just making a note.
Because of the 2010 incident, they didn't hold a festival in 2011.
And now because the country is still in mourning from the death of the old king, there is not one in 2012.
*you know what, I may just put that on my bucket list...if I ever make one...which I probably won't. Why not make a bucket list? Because I plan on just doing things whether or not I expect to.*
But that doesn't mean there is no celebrating. Oh no. The Church celebrates alright. I'm pretty sure that every missionary in Cambodia was at this festival party thing.
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| getting ready |
So there was a talent show. And my kids were awesome. Hands down, the best. No competition.
I mean, there was that Elder who did some yo-yo tricks.
And then there were some other youth from one of the branches that did a fashion show.
it was more like a here-let-me-walk-down-the-stage-and-pose-3-times thing. odd.
Oooh, there was an adult dancing group that did a traditional peacock dance. That one was actually cool
(I have videos of all these things and I'll upload them sometime. I'll let you know when that is.)
There was this Elder who played the guitar and a sister sang and he did a traditional Khmer song. That was impressive in that our music cultures are so varied that it doesn't really work, but they did it anyway. And then they sang some hymns in Khmer.
But my kids did like 4 different dances and they all were awesome.
I was sitting in the front row with Young Young on my lap, taking videos.
The missionaries passed out food during the beginning of the performance. It was this can that looked like an energy drink but wasn't. It was basically enriched Vitamin C stuff. A pair of small green bananas. And then a sandwich with some cucumber, weird looking meat, and a small bag of julienne carrots and sour krout in that fish oil stuff. I don't know what it is really- probably should've asked- but they sell it in recycled glass bottles. It's slightly yellow and smells slightly of vinegar, but is thicker than that. They put carrots and peanuts in it and it's a spring-roll dip.
It's really good food, just takes some getting used to.
I did wear a dress to this event. The kids told me to. I knew better than to just assume at this point. I rode to the church with the kids in a tuk-tuk. 4 Adults, 7 kids, and 2 boxes of costume stuff. And on our way home we had 2 boxes of food as well.
Talk about sardines.
After the missionaries all sang 'I Am a Child of God' in Khmer, we left. The rest of the audience stayed. They turned their chairs around so that they were facing the chapel instead of the cultural hall. (I don't think I mentioned, the LDS Church-house is built just like the ones you envision. With a stage, and an overflow, and a choir loft, and folding tables under the stage, and basketball hoops inside.) They were going to watch a movie of some sort. We did not stay.
Once we got back to CICFO, Vanneth gave me some of the food to take to Yaya and Sunny. They had not made it to the celebration because they were with their mom, Botevy, who was still pretty sick.
I got rained on while I was heading home. Rain in Cambodia is like rain in Hawaii. It is sudden. Unlike Hawaii, it always pours. It's kinda funny. Everywhere you go there are street vendors, and they always have ponchos for a few hundred reil. I had one in the basket of my bike. When it started to rain, I put mine on, and the streets full of people kinda disappeared. Like they retreated. And then a few minutes later these people crop up with ponchos, traveling with momentum like they'd never stopped. Nobody was on the street for like 20 seconds and then all of the sudden everyone is appropriately dressed.
I still got wet though. And that's okay. It was the water festival.
That's that.
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