Chol Chnam Thmay Festival – Tet of the Khmer

Similar to Vietnamese Lunar New Year, Chol Chnam Thmay Day also has the same meaning which is to welcome the new year. In addition, Chol Chnam Thmay also means to end the high noon. This is the time the land steps into the rainy season to prepare for the upcoming crop season.

The Khmer in Southern Vietnam has their own religion, the original Buddism. Their festivals express the religious colors and are associated with temples.

The Chol Chnam Thmay is also the New Year’s day of the Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand people. The festival often lasts for 3 days on any day of the early “chet” month of Khmer calendar, as known as the middle of April, at any day. This is the changing time from the dry season into the rainy season.

Before the festival, Khmer people prepare thoroughly everything. The first thing they have to prepare is clothes. Every member of the family especially the children are bought many new clothes. At the temples, the monks chant the Buddhism scriptures to pray for peace. They soak flowers in water, then use this water to wash the Buddha statue. Meanwhile, every local people also bathe with the fragrant water to wash away the unlucky things of the old years and welcome the new year with many lucks. In the family, they rub the rice to make a cake and fill the jar with water. Members of the family clean the Buddha altar, decorate the house together. At the pigsty and byre, there is enough straw for the animal to eat during three days of Tet.

In Chol Chnam Thmay, there is an indispensable custom of the Khmer people that are making the sandy mountain at the temples. Khmer people believe that every single grain of sand on the sandy mountain represent for a sin been eradicated and free a soul from the hell. The sandy mountain is also like the clouds bring the rain to the upcoming harvest after drought months.

Besides worshiping the Buddha, the Khmer also believe that each year, there is a god as known as Teveda sent to the world to take care of the people and their life. Each Teveda has one year term, therefore, at the end of the year, the Veteda return to the sky. The next year, there will be another Veteda take on the job. On new year’s eve, people usually decorate the altar with five branches of flowers, five candles, five incense, five nuts and many fruits. Parents and grandparents gather their children to sit down in front of the ancestors’ altars to farewell the old god and welcome the new god to their land. Furthermore, they also pray for luck and peace for them and their family at this time.

The first day is called Chngay Chol Chnam Thmay. On this day, people often dress beautifully to come to the temple for praying. At the temples, there will be an Acha holding the whole ceremony. People line up to walk around the main hall thrice for the new year welcoming ceremony. After that, everyone celebrates at the temple.

The second day is called Thngay Von-boch. Each family has to hold an offering morning meal and lunch for the monks in the temples. Before eating, the monk will chant thanks to the one making this meal. In the afternoon, there will be the “Sandhill making” ceremony (Puon Phnom Khsach) right at the temple’s campus under the guidance of the Acha.

The third day is Thngay Lon-sak. People wash the Buddha statue with fragrant water. After that, they also bathe the senior monks at the temple. It symbolizes for the washing of all of the unlucky things in the old year to step into a new year cleanly, completely new.

At these days, every family even the poor ones have to have a pot of num-chrut cake and num-tien cake. Num-chrut cake is a little similar to round glutinous rice cake of Kinh people while the num-tien cake is similar to the sweet sticky rice cake. These two kinds of cake represent the peace, and prosperity of the Khmer.

During the three days of the Chol Chnam Thmay Festival, people also organize the festival with many exciting activities such as drum dancing, kite flying, candlelight dance, etc. The Khmer also visit their relative house to and wish each other peace, lucky and prosperous new year. During your tours in Vietnam, you may have opportunities to take part in this important festival of Khmer people.