It was recently New Year in Southeast Asia, the biggest event of the year. Here one of our scholarship students, Sareth, shares his description of what happens.

Hello! Happy New Year!

I’m Sareth I just had a great time- Khmer New Year. For three days of the celebration I was very happy and excited. From the first to the third day of the celebration everything was almost the same, most business centers, goods markets, public buildings and citizen houses were closed and replaced by hanging lanterns and decorated houses with fruit, cake, drinks, flowers…to show they were welcoming and enjoying the New Year days.

Places that were normally crowded became silent. Instead of this, people went to gather in places like the monastery or public area. They went there to prepare food for monks, to play traditional and popular games,and to dance with New Year popular songs.

We played games, sang songs with dancing happily together. We have many styles of dancing for our popular songs. It’s really exciting. Beside this, some people went to visit tourism locations or own relatives as well.

I didn’t want the days to leave, I really love the New Year time.