New Year's Eve--9 February 2013

Today is New Year's Eve for the nations of the world that celebrate the Lunar New Year. Tonight at midnight marks the transition from the Year of the Dragon to the Year of the Snake. This is the most important holiday of the year for Chinese people and there are many traditions and customs that must be observed. One of them is burning offerings of paper money and paper cars and other paper objects so that they can be made available for the use of deceased ancestors. All over Phnom Penh, families of Chinese ancestry were out burning their offerings in front of their homes today.

Page 1  |  Page 2

The offerings can be burned in almost any kind of container and a variety burners, buckets, and pans were used.
A family burning offerings
Burning offerings
Burning offerings
Burning offerings
Burning offerings
Burning offerings
Burning offerings
Burning offerings
Even companies take part in this ritual and this wholesale firm has set up a desk with fruit and incense offerings in front of the main doors and has other staff burning paper offerings on the street. And all of this is in a country in which the Lunar New Year is not an official holiday.

Go to Cambodian Culture main page
Go to Charlie Dittmeier's home page