Happy Khmer New Year, The biggest national holiday in Cambodia is coming, it’s the Khmer New Year which is often celebrated for three days around 13/04/07-15/04/07 or 14/04/04-16/04/07. After the celebration of the new year, for Cambodians, it marks a new year.
What do people normally do for the new year celebration. It’s just quite in the recent years that neighbours are collected to dance Khmer styles and plays popular games since early April. Khmer musics are played in public places, along streets, in front of houses, and people are invited to join dancing or playing. Apart from dancing, they also play popular games, in group collaboration, such as Bos Angkonh or Jol Chhoong or Leaksonseng or Teanh Proit or Chap Kon Kleng or Dondeum Sleuk Chheu.
Angkonh is a name of a fruit – seed, very dark red color, it’s not for eating but it’s for playing. Angkonh mostly solved and available only for the new year season. In order to play this game, you need to have two groups, one person for a group is the smallest one to start but if you have no one to play with you can switch yourself from one group to another 
. How to play? Each group has to stay in a distance from each other, which can be mutually agreed what distance both sides like to mark. After deciding the distance, angkonh seeds can be placed on the ground, normally three seeds put on the ground in rectangle or linear shape. The other side will have to through other seeds of angkonh to the three seeds. Both sides have to do the same by throughing seeds from their side to collapse the three seeds of the other side. If any side can collapse all the three seeds, it can be marked as a winner and can punish the looser side. If both sides can collapse angkonh of each others they are equal. If, however, you through to collapse a middle seed of the other side, the game ends immediately and your group is lost and you will be punished three times more than the normal lost. The punishment is that the winner group will use two angkonh seeds hold in the hand, the two seeds have to make a noise and will be hit on your knee. If the two seeds do not make a noise, you have a chance to do that back.
During the new year, in the morning people will go to pagodas to offer food to the monks and they will pray the food to their died relatives, food offering to the monks is only in the morning because monks do not eat dinner. Afterwards, they can join the play of popular games at pagodas or at other public places or dance. It is also very comment that the new year is a reason for relatives visiting, big family meet up happily to discuss whatever they like, some go to their homelands for the family reunion, some visits other tourist resorts.
Ops, I have to finis some works so that I can go home. I’ll come back to explain more about these popoular games next time .
So, Happy Khmer New Year. Prosperity, Happiness, Sweet Love & Care, Luck & Joy, Healthy to you and your family.
With Lots of Love,
Da
