Author: Charles Dittmeier

Spirit House

Many Cambodian houses have a little spirit house on the wall or porch, a shrine to appease the spirits who were displaced wehn the people house was built. Most spirit houses are wooden but this one is made of plastic which I’ve never seen before. And it’s BIG! Most such houses will sit on a tabletop or are set on a small pole in the yard.

Presentation of the Lord

Today the church celebrates the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple 40 days after his birth, a prescription of the Law of Moses. An elderly man, Simeon, recognizes the baby as the messiah, “a light for the gentiles,” and from that reference the church picked this day for blessing candles used through the church year. We had a blessing of candles today–and some people seemed to make a point of dropping pools of wax on the floor. Three of us spent 45 minutes after everyone left to scrape up wax before the Khmer community had their afternoon mass.

Lunar New Year #10

Here is a wagonload of Lunar New Year chrysanthemums–a bit bedraggled! They didn’t even last five days past the new year! It must be bad batch or they bloomed too early because in some years the chrysanthemums are still radiant weeks after the beginning of the year.

Fr. Ponchaud Funeral

Fr. François Ponchaud died two weeks ago in France. He first came to Cambodia in 1965 and was the major influence in rebuilding the Catholic Church in the kingdom after the Khmer Rouge.

Today there was a funeral service for Fr. Ponchaud at St. Joseph Church. At the beginning, before the bishop and priests processed in, there was a ten-minute video about his life and work in Cambodia. I was pleased to see the Khmer church using the video system that our English Catholic Community installed. They have not taken advantage of it previously. Each Sunday there are masses at St. Joseph in Khmer at 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM with an English mass at 10:30 AM.

Deaf Awareness at U.S. Embassy

Today a team of young deaf people from the Deaf Leadership Training Project offered a deaf awareness training to some staff of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. It took a lot of organization and planning but turned out quite well.

Phones and photos were not permitted inside the embassy but afterwards we took a photo outside the embassy. As mark of appreciation, the embassy staff gave each of the DDP team a cap with an American flag and the words “U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh.”

Lunar New year #9

Today is the second day of the three main Lunar New Year days. Yesterday was a day for visiting parents. Today it’s the sisters and brothers who get visited.

It’s OK to have new year decorations still for sale in the shops–but what happens in a couple days when definitely no one is going to be buying anything like this? Can you pack up and save for a year decorations like the lanterns?

Lunar New Year’s Eve

Today is new year’s eve for the lunar new year and it is a BIG day for the families that celebrate it. Like Americans needing to be home for Thanksgiving, everyone MUST be home for the reunion dinner on new year’s eve. 100+ million Chinese people have been traveling the last couple days to make it home today.

But for those in Phnom Penh who did not need to travel, it was a day for putting out offerings for the spirits of the ancestors.

This machine shop set out a large array of fruits and drinks and bread.
This business’ arrangement wasn’t quite as large but was done with real care.
Here two shops, side-by-side, put out offerings on chairs set on the edge of the street.
Amid all the offerings from family shops, this family just put out a small arrangement with fruit and candles.