Water Festivals is a big traditional ceremony in Cambodia. This ceremony includes Racing Boat, worship, praying and more. Generally, it last for 3 days, but if it comes to Sunday, the majority of people must be so excited because it lucky that they has one day more spending their vocation.
Greetings everyone from Cambodia, today I really excited. The festival is arriving now, I have visited the ceremony at Phnom Penh. I am going to introduce you the water festival in Cambodia related to how we celebrate, the costume for decoration, the life of Cambodia during this festival and my traveling.
Racing Boats
Racing boats celebrating with a deep meaning. It consists of history of how Cambodian win against the enemy. And more reason that lead Cambodia end up fighting successfully by using boat as the main factor. Now, we are grateful that we live in peace by the legacy from our ancestors, we started to celebrate this festival in order to show our respect, grateful and the love to them. I believe if you ask the older people in Cambodia of how excited they are during the racing game they would say it the most enjoyable, they even wait for this since one week before too.
A good example of professional racing the boats will be choosing from different provinces, for men they choose a lot of people, most of women I rarely see. Every year our government will initiate a big racing boat ceremony in front of royal Palace, many people from over 24 provinces will come to visit Phnom Penh city. However, we are a little disappointed this year because we only celebrate it in own provinces, not in front of the Royal Palace as before. We hope to see that kind of atmosphere in front of the Royal Palace like the day my family and I go there to enjoy the racing boat.
Celebration
As a traditional, people who stay in their house without visiting anything would rather go to the pagoda, offer the food to the monks. Another thing a lot of older people suggested the younger is that we should give the food to our parents first, but make sure that we donโt taste it too much and be careful to divide the plate both for the parents and the monks.
The time I went there was 10 am, I would say there isnโt a lots of people since they likely prefer spending vocation in tourism areas like Siem Reap or Kampong Soam which are the common and popular place to visit in Cambodia . Visiting here, I can say it becomes one of my favorite places. It offers a vibe that I can feel the peaceful and relaxing. Well, I used to drive my motorbike pass this place whenever I travel the city, but this is also the first time I stop here and take a walk around the park.
Today is a day when all the people both National visitors and international visitors can enjoy all the decoration made by Cambodian. There are Ombok, which is the main thing of this Water Festival. During this time, many market especially open air market would sell ombok for people to buy and praying with ombok during the night time as an ingredient worship the moon.
Traditional, grandparents or grandmother would use ombok put in son or daughter mouth in order to get the happiness and healthy in this year. Many ingredients used for decoration such as ombok, domlong, saku, banana both green and yellows, coconut ๐ฅฅ, watermelon ๐, palm fruit, juice like Coca Cola and more.
I would say it is a common thing in tourism area, kids both boys and girls who live in a poor family would walked with carry the goods like fruits, eggs or crafts to sell for visitors. As long as I see I remember when I studied at my secondary school, one of my friends go to school with me and we talked during the class, but when she comes back home, she would go to the local market or neighbor house selling the corn. Sometimes she sells the fish too. That story would be tough for her because her family couldnโt afford her if she didnโt help and support the family business.
We can noticed that a few people still do their work or business like tuk tuk, they all looking for costumer. Most people who suffer from life, I believe they will make a better result soon since they work very hard just like if you see in the reality there isnโt a lot of costumer this day because most people in Cambodia prefer car and motorbike which is their private transportation rather then a transport service.
Even though we celebrate Oak Ombok at night, we see that people decorate and prepared all the stuff since one day or in the morning before. Just like another place in Cambodia, movie theater also have a decoration for water festival, the same use of ingredients and costumes as I have mentioned.
This days is colorful, we as a Cambodian try to have something colorful in order to make this important day more interesting and impressive. During this event, some of the stores also have a lots of promotions or discounts to all costumer who comes and visit the mall. Thatโs my friend who suggested me to get the promotion for the popcorn. Now, it comes to the end of my festival blog. I wish everyone happy and enjoy the great weekend.