Prayers & Partying

The Cambodian New Year was ushered in Sunday by hundreds of Buddhists and their friends in a rousing festival marked by solemn prayers, giddy celebration and a spirit of both tradition and renewal.

“It is a time to forget about the past, when everything becomes new and enemies become friends,” said Bunnalim Nou, a young Buddhist monk who had to shout to be heard above blaring folk songs at the Santa Ana College student center. “A time for everyone to come together.”

For many in the crowd, welcoming the Year of the Tiger was also an opportunity to tap into the culture of their homeland and the traditions of their ancestors. For others, it was just a great chance to see friends.

“It feels like everyone in the world comes out and comes together, and I enjoy that,” said Muse Ahmath, a Muslim and an officer in the campus Cambodian Student Club. “It’s very touching, even for a person who’s not a Buddhist.”

And fun for young people. While kneeling elders bowed their heads in prayer, teens wearing vivid silk or their starched Sunday best giggled, danced and sang on the campus lawns. Younger kids grabbed empty 50-pound rice bags for impromptu sack races.

Inside, the smell of incense mixed with the aroma of jackfruit, sweet and sour pork, tapioca soaked in coconut milk and dozens of other Cambodian dishes. Many of the delicacies were carried in srack, ornate, silver-colored canisters.

Food was also part of the holiday symbolism. Mounds of rice marked by foil flags and candles were respectfully set before an altar as sustenance for long-dead ancestors. Donations of food, money and other items were heaped in front of chanting monks to honor them. The sharing of food brings happiness and prosperity in the upcoming year, Nou said.

Although the sights and smells recalled Cambodia, the new year’s festival does differ from celebrations in the homeland. Instead of the traditional three days, the U.S. celebration is condensed to one day and scheduled on a weekend, a nod to the workaday demands on the faithful.

The actual new year, called Maha Sankrant Day, begins today. Although Cambodia has long used the same lunar calendar as China and Vietnam, Cambodian astrologers centuries ago shifted their nation’s celebration from February to mid-April, after the rice harvest was complete.

The local celebration fell this year on the same weekend as Easter Sunday and Passover, bringing three major faiths together in reflection and spiritual celebration. “That’s a very nice thing,” Nou said.

The new year’s festival compels even the hard-hearted to make a fresh start, reach out to others and forget grudges, according to Heat C. Leao, an educator with Cambodian Family, a local social service group. If someone wants to be vengeful during holiday, he or she must first count each grain of rice offered for sacrifice.

“And that,” Leao pointed out with a smile, “would take a while. So better to forget and celebrate.”