Category: Culture

The Lunar (Chinese) New Year was February 12th but there are still plenty of remnants of the holiday decorations still around Phnom Penh. Many stores and other establishments still have their doorway decorations.

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The colorful new year flower arrangements are the most perishable of the decorations and many have found their way to the trash, but a surprising number still grace the fronts of stores and homes.

Today is the last of the three days of major celebration for the Lunar/Chinese/Tet new year. Click here to see some scenes and notes from this year’s celebration.

Today is New Year’s Eve in the lunar calendar and for the people in the chopsticks countries, the reunion dinner this evening is one of the most important happenings of the year. In non-pandemic times, everyone MUST return home for the meal together.

This is a Khmer-Chinese family next door to the DDP office compound. They are well-to-do by Cambodian standards. As I was going home this afternoon, they were arranging parts of their dinner (the roast pig) and offerings to their ancestors (the paper houses and car and the beer and soft drinks and fruit and incense). And they were well decked out in their traditional red outfits for this glorious night!

You know the lunar new year is getting close when people start to put out their chrysanthemums. You can’t do that too early because they will bloom and fade before the holiday. Click here to see some of the early arrivals.

The Lunar New Year (most commonly called the Chinese New Year in the U.S.) will begin on February 12th this year. Click here to see some of the preparations for the festival that are starting to appear.

All religions have their rituals and distinctive practices. Buddhism has several rules about footware that the monks must observe when begging on the streets. Click here to see some examples.

Ms. Miwako Fujiwara is the founder and director of the now quite well-known musical group, Musica Felice. Several times a year they perform in charity concerts that are always well received. This past weekend we were treated to their latest production which had been delayed several months because of COVID-19 restrictions. It was well worth the wait!