Esther Wu: Local Buddhist temples plan for April 13 new year …
During the 1970s, Paul Thai, like most of his fellow countrymen, lived in terror during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
Despite the many hardships from those years, the Dallas police lieutenant said, one of his fondest childhood memories was celebrating Chaul Chnam Thmey, or the Cambodian new year.
For many years, Lt. Thai has worked in Dallas to re-create the celebration, which falls on April 13 this year.
"In Cambodia, the new year observance lasts three days and three nights," said Lt. Thai, one of the first Asian-Americans to serve in the Dallas Police Department.
"During this time, everyone was off from work and all businesses were closed. It was a very exciting event for everyone, and especially for my family."
"My family would get together with our relatives and go to the Buddhist temple, where we played games," said Lt. Thai, who works with the neighborhood police coordination unit.
"At night we would watch outdoor movies at the temple …What a treat!"
Several Asian countries celebrate the start of the new year this month – including Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (Burma). The celebrations combine Buddhist beliefs, ancient astrology and the solar calendar. Festivities last from three to seven days and are marked by the pouring or sprinkling of water for a symbolic cleansing for the new year.
Leck Keovilay, a Laotian community volunteer, said the day before the new year is spent cleaning house and preparing food. "The second day, we normally go to the temple and offer food to the monks and spend the day praying. The next day is spent celebrating, visiting with friends, holding parades and attending festivals."
Several area Buddhist temples will hold new year celebrations. The festivities are free and open to the public and will take place from 10 a.m. to about 4 p.m. Food is often brought to the monks, who offer blessings for the coming year. At most locations, there will be food booths, cultural performances, games, parades and, of course, the splashing of water.
Tags: new, thai, year
shotties are fucken good mate
Religion of Peace, my aching ass….
LOTR had nothing to do wiht New Zealand other than being filmed there and maybe taking advantage of their tax breaks. You might as well say The Matrix was Australian if you’re going to say LOTR is from New Zealand.
Australia should take the hint.THE BOYCOTT WILL CONTINUE UNTIL WE SEE MAD MAX 4!
don’t forget that brisbane’s auran made dark reign! been to their office, awesome music studio there.
Anyone know /where/ the bombs hit? I just got back from bangkok. I was staying in the sukhumvit areaat the atlanta hotel. Thankfully, I left at 8am on my flight to tokyo.
You missed Rose Byrne. What a dreamboat.
Japan has a comparively big film industry but I’m pretty sure US films are far more profitable over there than their own.
@BigKitty & other civilization-warriors: These attacks do not have ANY of the trademarks of Al Qaeda (if you disagree, tell me where al qaeda has done something like this) apart from the fact that no-one has claimed responsibility. The Thai police presently do NOT think they were carried out by islamists: “THE people who lost out in last year’s Thai military coup, and not southern Muslim insurgents, are the leading suspects in the Bangkok New Year’s Eve bombings, according to the country’s Prime Minister, Surayud Chulanont.” http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/police-rule-bangkok-in-wake-of-bombs/2007/01/01/1167500062371.htmlIt looks like you wont get your civilization war today either. What a bummer, huh?
muslims like to suck pigs dicks
Ok, we seem to have a legitimate disagreement here. Some of us see Islam as this religion of peace. Others of us look to Islam’s 1,400-year history of violence. It is one of those classic battles between preconceived beliefs about a subject (a/k/a prejudice) and an actual historical record.Let’s settle this once and for all. Let’s give the Muslims a change to prove they are a religion of peace. Let them go the next 1,400 years without a single act of terrorism and we can call a truce. We can say that Islam was only a violent religion for the first half of its existence, but is now a religion of peace. Fair enough?
see the tourists video he was filming when one of the bombs went off. amazing the distructionhttp://www.searchjerk.com/cgi-bin/smartsearch/smartsearch.cgi?keywords=thailand+bomb+blast+video&search=Search
My bad .. Happy Feet .. I knew I forgot that one. Still my point stands there has been far too few great movies given the clearly talented pool of actors/actresses.
“Mad Max 4 - More Crap We Have to do to Survive After the Jews Brought About Armageddon”
PaperMario: All “holy” books are filled with contradictions, you can pretty much read whatever you want into them, so analyzing word for word will do no good. The terrorist have their interpretation of islam, others have theirs, none of them is more true or right than the other, as you will find both passages supporting war and peace in the quran and other such scriptures.Religion alltogether is a horrible thing if you ask me, fairytales for adults. And if you start living your life after the laws of fairytales, it can either be a waste of time and effort, or just outright dangerous.