To paraphrase the artist formerly known as Prince, “So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 2,565.”

That’s right. This week is Khmer New Year, celebrating the start of the 2,566th year of the Buddhist Era. In Thailand, the official calendar is BE and you might be surprised to see your phone automatically shift from 2019 AD to 2563 BE (at least I was).

In Cambodia, there’s not so much focus on the year change but instead an emphasis on cultural traditions, time with friends/family, and returning to ancestral homelands in the countryside. It is the quietest time of year in Phnom Penh as most of the population leaves for the countryside where they’ll reconnect with family and pay tribute to their ancestors. It’s also the busiest time of the year for traveling in Cambodia and, after two years of pandemic, this roads this year are especially busy. Khmer New Year is officially a three day holiday but most workplaces give people have the entire week off to accommodate for travel.

Last year, on the Friday before Khmer New Year, we were able to have a small socially distanced gathering in the courtyard of our then new house with the MCC team.

This year, on the Friday before Khmer New Year, we were able to finally gather together and play all of the traditional games. This involved lots of throwing powder at each other and smashing more than a few clay pots. The girls, of course, had a wonderful time.

One of the most iconic games involves running around and throwing powder at each other. We used baby powder, I’m not sure what they used in traditionally. In Laos, they throw water instead of powder.

There was also lots and lots of dancing.

The other iconic game is blindfolding someone, giving them a stick, spinning them around, and then sending them to break a clay pot hanging on a string. This is done while everyone is yelling “right” or “left” very loudly in Khmer at them. Inside the clay pot is more powder and some candy.

In some games, we split up into two teams and…sometimes…there was a team that lost. The punishment for losing was performative. Here the team that lost a contest had to do a duck dance.

One of the group games setting up three lacquered seeds in a triangle and then throwing other lacquered seeds at them. Knocking down the seed at front of the triangle was an automatic loss for the team. You had to knock down the two seeds on the sides first, then the central seed.

And, of course, there was more dancing.

And a sack race!

And finally a balancing contest.

Charlotte had some trouble understanding that we were trying to not break the clay pot this time. Especially since there was still candy inside.