Category: Culture

Lunar New Year 6

After you clean the house and buy new clothes and get your haircut; after you burn the incense and paper offerings; then it’s time to put out the food and drink offerings to really make the spirits happy.

Almost every shop has some sort of offerings on display…
A safety equipment store.
An Internet shop…but why do they have three offering tables?
Offerings outside a restaurant.
At a used car parts shop.
At a beauty salon.
Some shops put out really elaborate offerings. (I’ve noticed that the spirits really like beer. Or at least the people who put out the offerings think they do.)
This beauty salon has a rather humble offering.
This private house has a rather generous offering.
While this house’s offering is much more subdued.
This man goes all out at his house, making sure the spirits are pleased.

The End

Lunar New Year 5

There are always last-minutes purchases and preparations and many people were out on new year’s eve making everything ready.

One more decoration for the home or maybe a trinket for the kids….
These men finally found a traditional peach-blossom tree to put in the house.
This man opts for a few more fresh flowers….
This woman is selling the white jasmine blossoms on a stick or the small jasmine garlands which are important new year’s decoration.
And these people are getting the truck ready to head out to the province and leave the city hoopla behind.

Lunar New Year 4

Much of the world may be turning away from meat for health and environmental reasons, but for many developing countries eating meat is a sign of success, an indicator that the family is no longer too poor. And that is especially true at the Lunar New Year when roast pig is an almost essential item.

The proper day to buy the roast pig is the morning of the reunion dinner so all the farmers bring their offerings to town early in the day. There are big pigs and little pigs, a size to fit each family.
This man considers the roast pigs on offer on the street. If a whole pig is too much, there are slabs of roast pork in the cart on the right.
If roast pig doesn’t seem right this year, roast ducks and geese are available at this shop.
This woman’s streetside shop offers more roast ducks and some small pigs.

Lunar New Year 3

Because the lunar year isn’t an actual holiday people won’t take quite as many days off as they will for the Khmer New Year. But they will all celebrate at home and at their work place. Here are some scenes from staff parties at various places of employment before they head home for the new year’s eve reunion dinner, a VERY important occasion.

Lanterns hung at one school.
A family new year’s eve meal in a machine shop.
Another group celebrating in an automobile repair shop.
Staff celebrating the new year at a company office.

Lunar New Year 2

Certain activities have to take place on certain days according to the Lunar New Year calendar. Today was the day for burning offerings for deceased ancestors to provide them with what they need in the afterlife and, more importantly, to keep them happy so they don’t cause problems for the family.

This woman and her daughter got a good fire going.
This man is burning things on a smaller scale and just getting ready to light the match.
This man demonstrates how it’s supposed to be done.
This man cleans the street in front of his house as burns the imitation money and other paper articles for his ancestors.
At this house, the whole family got together to burn their offerings.
This is the man who makes the receptacles for burning offerings but he doesn’t seem to be using any of them for his own ancestors.

Lunar New Year

This coming Saturday is the Lunar New Year celebrated by the chopsticks countries. It’s not an official holiday in Cambodia—but everyone takes off for 3 or 4 days or a week. The stores and shops are already showing off their decorations.

Some commercial establishments take a low-key approach like this cable TV company.
These two hotels add the vertical hangings beside the door and some lanterns.
This electronics store tries to make it a little more festive.

Mindfulness

In Cambodia there are a couple dozen Catholic pre-schools and kindergartens, many established for Vietnamese community children to help them integrate into Cambodian society and culture. There is no system of Catholic schools in the kingdom, though. The Jesuits have started creating a pre-school to university educational setting in rural Banteay Meanchey Province, and as usual, they do a super job with education. These are some of the primary school students at the beginning of the day when they have a period of silent meditation. There probably aren’t many settings in the United States where that could happen.

Signs of Christmas

Being a Buddhist country and culture, there is very little Cambodian appreciation of Christmas in the religious sense, but as happens with so many Western holidays and celebrations, the commercial aspect comes into play. Few people could identify Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus but those same people would buy red “Santa suits” to dress up their children. They become especially popular for “international” schools which have Christmas programs to prove they are international which is the label that attracts parents. Here are some photos of shops selling the Santa clothes.

Pchum Ben 2019

Today was the first and most important day of the Pchum Ben festival in which Cambodian people honor their deceased relatives and ancestors. They all go to their home provinces for this so Phnom Penh becomes quite empty and peaceful. I had to go to a 6:15 AM mass across town and took a few photos coming and going.

Shops normally bustling in the morning are all closed up. Three very well dressed adults go visiting on a motorcycle. One man celebrates the holiday sitting in front of his shop. Two boys return from buying some takeaway food for the family for breakfast.