Year of the Golden Pig

The Chinese New Year was heralded in this weekend. My Khmer teacher, Chheng An, invited me to a family get together at his parents house 25 kms away. When I accepted the invitation, I didn’t realise that I would be asked to take Chheng An’s 4 year old son on the back of my motorbike. The little boy has been transported on motorbikes since before he could sit, so no one could understand why I was concerned for his safety, but I got really worried when he started falling asleep behind me. However, we arrived without incident; thank goodness for the child’s innate sense of balance and self preservation! We spent the morning mostly sitting around, eating and snoozing on hammocks. Chheng An’s brother in law was the only one who had any sense of occasion, and he prepared gifts for the spirits, including a newly plucked chicken and cigarettes.
Back in Kampong Thom, the lion dancing troupe was being kept busy, going round houses, restaurants and shops. The usual fee for the troupe to perform at your home is around $20. Outside each house the lion and boy performed a ritual dance accompanied by drums and bells, and then went inside to bless the shrine (every home has one!) and all the rooms. They would then return outside and a long string of firecrackers would be let off. The lion would then stand on its back legs to stretch up to grab a gift of food dangled from above.