Shasta’s Lao, Thai and Cambodian communities will welcome the new year on April 19

For much of the world, the new year is not celebrated on Jan. 1.

Across Asia and the Middle East, different cultures and religious groups mark the beginning of the year at different points in the spring. Novruz — or “new day” in Farsi — is the name for the new year in the Caucasus, Iran, Afghanistan and much of Central Asia, coinciding with the spring equinox. Similarly, Ugadi, which is recognized as the new year by much of Southeast India, is just one of several different regionally specific new year holidays across the country that range in timeline for celebration from December to July.

In Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, many people traditionally welcome the new year in mid-April, following the lunisolar calendar, as opposed to the standard 365-day Gregorian calendar that is structured on the Earth’s rotation around the sun. 

That’s why Shasta County’s Lao, Thai and Cambodian communities will be holding their celebration later this month.The event on April 19 is open to all and will include a religious ceremony, traditional dance and a lot of food.

Shasta County is home to a vibrant Southeast Asian community, many of whom moved to Northern California as refugees in the aftermath of U.S. and Soviet proxy wars in the 60s and 70s as a result of the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, which set aside millions of dollars to resettle Southeast Asian refugees across the nation. 

Weun Ayn Lee, a local pharmacist who was born in Laos and immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-80s, still recalls the meager New Year celebrations that families still held onto in refugee camps in Thailand. 

“In the camps, the celebration of New Year was really modest — was really based on individual families, instead of as a community,” he said. 

Since arriving in Redding, these diasporic communities have been celebrating their traditional New Year for decades. It’s known as Songkran in the Thai language, Pi Mai Lao in the Lao language and Chaul Chnam Thmey in the Khmer language. 

Though the community has been celebrating for many years, Lamyai Sengxay, who helped organize this year’s event, said this is the first time Lao-Thai-Cambodian New Year, or LTC New Year for short, will take place at the religious site.

“Just be prepared to get wet,” Sengxay chuckled, describing the Lao tradition of playfully splashing water on one another to wash away the “old luck” from the previous year. 

The morning, she said, is the “monks’ time.” Worshipers will give alms, and Buddhist monks will perform a ritual involving chanting. As is the practice in Laos, attendees will also wash the temple’s idols, all of which will be followed by a traditional dance around noon.

“We’re gonna have a lot of food vendors. We’re calling it a food fair, slash New Year,” Sengxay said, describing the afternoon festivities. 

Dishes will include a zingy papaya salad and sticky rice — both staples of Lao cuisine, as well as succulent grilled sausages, barbecue, egg rolls, jerky, desserts, fresh sugarcane and coconut juice and boba, courtesy of BTC Cafe. 

Back in Laos, Sengxay said, there were other traditions that families performed at home, as well. 

“We would wash our parents’ feet and ask for forgiveness,” she said. In turn, “our parents would bless us with good luck, and forgive whatever we did or said to them in that past year.”

Shasta’s Lao-Thai-Cambodian New Year, will take place on Sunday, April 19 at Redding’s small Buddhist temple on 11815 Rebecca Lane, starting at 10 a.m.

---

Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.