Khmer get festive with ancestors

Khmer get festive with ancestors

Ly Thi Kim Anh could not hide her joy when she moved into her new hoin Xuan Tuc Commune of the southern province of Soc Trang.

Like many poor Khmer people, she received her home thanks to the help of the province, which has thus far provided nearly 1,000 new homes to area residents. But that is not all Anh has to look forward to.

Thanks to her good fortune, she and her family now happily enjoy the Sene Dolta Festival, the traditional Khmer festival commemorating ancestors, which began on Tuesday.

The Sene Doha Festival is held from the 29th day of the 8th lunar month to the first day of the 9th lunar month where the Khmer people live.

This is Grandparents' day, similar to the Thanh Minh (grave-visiting) festival of the Viet people.

On these days, people bring tet cakes (glutinous rice cake filled with green bean and pork) along with fruit, flowers and rice to leave for their ancestors at the pagoda. After that, the families return home to hold their own feast.

The tradition stipulates that Khmer families visit the pagodas in the first morning of the festival. It is then that they invite their ancestors to return home with them, to enjoy the festivities alongside their children and grandchildren.

That afternoon, the children bring their ancestors back to the pagodas and listen to the kinh phat (Buddhism's bible).

During the afternoon of the second day of the festival the rituals are repeated, and on the third day, families enact a final worshipping ceremony, bidding their ancestors farewell.

Many performances specific to Khmer culture accompany the festival and take place in the pagodas, but one in particular draws the largest crowd. This event is ox-racing, which marks the start of the festival.

Before the event, the people clear a large area (around 200m long, 100m wide, possessing some access to water), which is then plowed and harrowed to make it slippery for the race.

The raceway itself is 120m long and is protected low walls with safety gates to corral the oxen. Two flags mark the starting-point, and the oxen must begin and end at the same colour flag. Balance, speed and luck play different roles within the event, intensifying the surprise of who will win.

However, with poverty in the region still very prevalent, few will enjoy the festival this year as much as Anh.

"This year we'll welcome the Sene Dolta Festival in a warmer house," she said. However, the province is trying hard to make sure Anh's family is not the only one.