For the 1^st of January 2021 show episode, the editor Katarina Kolega interviewed five travelers, Pipeaway blogger Ivan Kralj included. The result was a cultural journey to Cambodia, India, Qatar, Algeria, and Cuba.

The calendar is a product of a social agreement. Most scholars estimate that Jesus was born between the 6^th and 4^th year before Christ. That is already a paradox on a linguistic levelIvan Kralj

“Today, we celebrate the New Year on a day determined by Pope Gregory XIII, in the 16^th century. According to that Gregorian calendar, we are entering the year 2021. And time is divided to an era before and after Jesus Christ. Most scholars estimate that Jesus was born between the 6^th and 4^th year before Christ. That is already a paradox on a linguistic level”, Ivan pointed out at the beginning of the show.

Indeed, it seems that counting time exposes the dominant power. Christian civilization definitely imposed its calendar on the rest of the world. “But other civilizations have their own versions of the calendar, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Chinese… Each of them has a peculiar starting point for the counting of time. Even us, in Croatia, if we were to follow the Vučedol calendar (Orion, the oldest European calendar discovered in eastern Croatia, Ed.), we wouldn’t celebrate the New Year on the 31^st of December, but on the spring equinox, at the twilight of the first day of the spring”, Pipeaway editor explained.

The calendar is indeed a product of a social agreement. In the world disagreeing about many things, it is not unusual to have a variety of dates celebrating essentially the same thing – the start of the “New Year”.

Asian New Year water festival

For travelers, the disparities in calendars give a unique opportunity to travel through space and time, all in one.

“They were occasions when I would celebrate the New Year three times in a period of a few months. For instance, the Croatian in December in Zagreb, the Chinese New Year in February somewhere in Malaysia, and then the Khmer New Year in April in Battambang, Cambodia”, Ivan said to Katapultura.

“Asian cultures vary not only by the date of their New Year celebrations but also by their durations. What we do speedily in one night in the West and then, after a single holiday, come back to the usual working track, in Asia can be an event of two weeks!”

For Chinese girls on the Malaysian island of Penang, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year is a special event of love – Chap Goh Mei! 

For the entire Hokkien diaspora, the 9th day of Chinese New Year festivities, also known as the Jade Emperor's birthday, is a favorite - learn more about Pai Ti Kong! 

Presenting our editor as a “tireless traveler who vividly tells his travel adventures on Pipeaway.com”, Katarina was especially interested in Songkran in Cambodia, the unusual and special water throwing festival that marks the Khmer New Year celebrations, Chaul Chnam Thmey.

“In Cambodia, Khmer New Year lasts three days, from 13^th till 15^th of April. They celebrate a traditional lunar year, at the end of the harvest season, and before the rains come. They welcome the wet season exactly by celebrating water. The most extreme part of this New Year celebration includes rubbing people’s faces with baby powder and pouring abundant quantities of water. There is a wide arsenal of water weapons, from guns and rifles to balloon bombs, hosepipe, and full buckets”, Ivan explained.

Countries that celebrate Songkran, such as Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia, measure time according to the Buddhist calendar. In 2021, they will celebrate the year 2565!

Check what the New Year water festival looks like on Pipeaway’s Youtube channel!

Burning Man in India

India celebrates the Buddhist New Year too. But in a country of a variety of cultures, one can also observe the Islamic and Christian New Year.

The largest portion of Christians is in the state of Kerala. This is where writer Kristina Gavran celebrated the New Year on Vasco da Gama Square in Kochi, in a carnival atmosphere, eating banana chips and bhaji, and watching DJs, singers, and dancers on stage. The highlight of the Cochin Carnival is the burning of Papanhi. The giant statue of an old man is the remnant of the Portuguese colonial past.

“There is a belief that the New Year is born as a little baby, a child. It matures to be an old man at the end of the year”, Kristina explained to Katapultura. “They also connect it to a certain topic. Sometimes it’s a flood, sometimes a tsunami, sometimes ecology. The burning of Papanhi is saying goodbye to these events.”

“People put masks of Hindu gods during a period of two weeks, which ends with a New Year procession led by a big gold-adorned elephant and a drummer”, Kristina noted. “It is interesting that traditional members of the procession are also transsexuals, typically quite stigmatized and socially excluded people of Kerala. But on the day of the carnival, they are welcome and greeted. At this time, Indian society gets better, and those from the margin of the society suddenly get into its center.”

Christian stories say that Kerala is the place where Saint Thomas the apostle disembarked and started spreading the teaching of Jesus.

In the New Year period, the Christmas spirit is celebrated through star-shaped lampions, decorated trees of coconut or mango, and proudly displayed nativity scenes.

New Year celebrations in Muslim countries

The actress Romana Petrušić took the listeners to the state of Qatar, where two-thirds of citizens are Muslim. New Year’s Day is a working day, like any other. There are no special holiday decorations in the streets of Doha, the country’s capital. However, there’s a light show whenever you visit the city!

“The lights on palm trees, in the town, everywhere. One could think that every day is a New Year’s Day there”, Romana said. “They do not decorate the streets even for Ramadan. Qataris celebrate their religious holidays by visiting each other, family to family. Men and women meet in separate chambers of the house. Also, they count the new years differently, from when Islam was founded, from the appearance of Muhammad.”

In Algeria, 98 % of citizens are Muslim. The journalist Maja Peterlić testified that the streets of Algiers in December do not scream New Year either. The only people who followed the French/European trends of New Year celebrations were perhaps the older generations of Algerians. The parties in expensive restaurants and hotels are mainly reserved for foreigners. One such hotel is where the journalist welcomed 2020.

“It was a New Year in Berber style. Some singers, classical dinner and countdown at midnight, quite a few Berber dances”, Maja explained. “Women tie a scarf around their hips and dance a peculiar dance with nice, but not too lascivious, belly dancing. And they shout in a peculiar way, cheering up the men or simply expressing happiness and joy.”

Clinking glasses in Cuba – Happy New Year!

The joy of dancing is at the center of every party in Cuba too, if we believe the professional salsa dancer Ramon Yudimir Noa Caraballo. For Katapultura, he talked about his New Year celebrations in Havana, surrounded by the nearest family and the best food they had.

Wherever in the world we are, and whenever we choose the starting point of our counting, there is this one common thing that connects us all: the hope that tomorrow will be better

“We prepare a soup, some kind of potato, frijoles negros (black beans), rice, meat (it could be pork, chicken, or both), and bananas”, Ramon revealed. “Those could be breaded bananas or fried like tostones (thicker slices) and chicharitas (salty chips). We drink beer and rum, and for New Year -sidra or champagne.”

Wherever in the world we are, and whenever we choose the starting point of our counting, there is this one common thing that connects us all: the hope that tomorrow will be better. We are all hoping to turn a new chapter of our lives, forget the gloomy past, and start anew. In that name, we raise our champagne glass too!

The radio show Katapultura has been broadcast since 2004. In 2007, it won the prize of the Croatian Journalist Association for the best-edited radio show.

The entire show on New Year celebrations around the world can be found on the Katapultura webpage. The language of the show is Croatian.

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The masks drop, and nobody is innocent anymore. You can see some of the victims lifting their purses, desperately trying to hide them from the attackers. There is no real mercy shown. These smiling enemies pull out their hidden artillery and start shooting their guns, some even throwing bombs!

The girls on bicycles are especially endangered. Local boys are stopping them at the barricades, and then take turns spreading white fluid all over their faces. At first glance, Chaul Chnam Thmey, a Khmer New Year celebration, looks like rape.

Welcome to Songkran Cambodia, the Khmer festival celebrated with a water fight!

People around the world have a variety of customs when it comes to celebrating the New Year - check them out!

Songkran festival as typical Asian water war

The voluntary street battles are fought with water and baby powder, and conflict seems to make most of the people happy.

Adults and kids engage in this yearly fun ritual of shooting water guns, throwing water balloon bombs, and splashing buckets of water on each other.

A three-day war is not enough for everyone, so one can expect to experience some water splashing even in the week following the official public holiday dates!

However, celebrating the start of the new year by throwing a water fight is not the Cambodian specialty. People in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Yunnan province of China each have their own water festival. While Songkran is most often associated with Thailand’s water games, each country has its specific name that marks the start of the new year – Moha Sangkran, according to the ancient horoscope.

In most of the countries of East and Southeast Asia, April 13 is the date when the festivities launch. It is the end of the harvesting season and the start of the rainy one.

Bathing Buddha for good luck

In the aftermath of Songkran Cambodia celebrations, the local temples might look like they were hit by a giant mud-water bomb. Yet, the justification for the custom is rooted in religion!

Songkran Cambodia’s ritual sees people pouring water on each other. Sometimes, they mix it with white chalk

People wash monks and Buddha statues with perfumed water, as a symbolic farewell to wrong actions and sins, while welcoming good luck, longevity, happiness, and prosperity in the new year. In the same way, if children wash their parents or grandparents, the year will bring them advantages.

Using holy water for cleansing is just one of the rituals promising a fresh start to the year. The house should be cleaned too, and new clothes should be worn. Those might get their first washing in the street, as Sraung Preah represents the ritual in which Cambodians pour water on each other. They might mix the water with white chalk, sometimes colored in pink or yellow.

In Malaysia, they don't throw water, but oranges! Read about Chap Goh Mei, the love-inspired start of the Chinese New Year!

Radical expressions of love at Songkran Cambodia

“We love youuu!”, screams the young guy while he rubs the white powder into my face. Driving the bicycle through the villages around Battambang is a special experience in which perfect strangers are allowed to touch you. You might get hugged and sometimes kissed at Songkran in Cambodia. All with a “Happy New Year!” greeting justification.

Something you will certainly not be able to avoid is – getting wet. The blessings range from a gentle sprinkle to a bucket of water exploding against you. This is not just another “I got wet in the rain” experience. The water gets in your underwear and shoes, and one day of drying might not be enough (as experienced).

You are lucky if you got only wet. The unlucky ones will experience that some water throwers have a secret weapon. They put a large block of ice to melt in the water, which creates the freezing ammunition that shocks you out of nowhere. This is the ice water bucket challenge raised on a whole new level!

Gratitude for the waterfest

Every time someone pours several liters of water down your shirt, you get an instinctive urge to say “Thank you!”. It is a weirdly quick adoption of the new vocabulary when attacked; I was astonished about it.

You start to read every splash as an expression of a good wish. We might say a blessing, but it doesn’t challenge your religious beliefs.

There is so much laughter going on, which would melt even the grumpiest faces. Or maybe the grumpy ones don’t exit their houses on these days.

Then there is also fair play. Even if some girls in my YouTube video of the Cambodian Songkran might have an angry reaction to their water treatment, the line of excessive shelling is rarely crossed.

The little girl throws a water balloon at me. It falls on the ground without breaking. She picks it up and hands it to me so that I can launch it back at her.

In the unwritten code of conduct, only the elders are genuinely spared. And the policemen, when they come to turn down the passion volume. The other passers-by turn targets/attackers, in the always shifting roles.

The Malaysian island of Penang is not just a great place to celebrate the Chinese New Year. One community prepares a special feast for Pai Ti Kong, which became to be known as Hokkien New Year!

Khmer New Year for new friendships

Cambodians are extremely friendly people. As I experienced with my fellow travelers, Westerners Gabby and Damian, they will welcome you into their world very smoothly, no questions asked. They may not have a lot, but they will still make room for another friendly face in the gang, and share what they have.

At one moment, the combination of continually repeating Rasmey Hang Meas song, the burning tropical sunshine one cannot feel due to constant water showers, and the abundance of Anchor beer cans, made me fully immersed in this street party. So much so that I started to turn off my GoPro camera when I wanted to start to record, and vice versa.

Was that beer intoxicating me? Or was that beer mixed with water in the cocktail of pure Songkran Cambodia happiness?

After Songkran Festival Cambodia, I experienced a touching lecture on kindness - check it out!

Songkran Cambodia is when wet dreams come true

During the Khmer New Year, bigger Cambodian towns get empty. Many businesses close their doors as families get together, dress up in colorful Hawaiian-style shirts, play traditional games, eat good food, drink, and spray each other with water. Traveling becomes more complicated, as buses fill up with locals and their presents for the relatives they visit.

This means that Phnom Penh and Siem Reap should probably not be on the top of your list if you want to experience authentic Cambodia during Chaul Chnam Thmey.

However, Battambang, the second largest Cambodian city, is a good compromise. It offers a buzzing center with market stalls and restaurants, but also the proximity of its rural suburbs makes it an excellent place to experience the extraordinary local traditions.

If you need to engage in any war next April, choose the friendliest one – Songkran Festival Cambodia!

How to get to Battambang in Cambodia for Songkran?

Based on preferences and budget, there are different ways to get from Siem Reap to Battambang for the wild water festival of Songkran.

• You can fly down to Phnom Penh and then catch a connecting flight to Battambang Airport or take a taxi or minivan to reach your destination.
• There are several bus operators operating buses from Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and other Cambodian cities to Battambang. The journey is between 4-8 hours, depending on the stops.
• If you want comfort, air conditioning, and quick service, minivans are a great alternative to buses but they are slightly more expensive.
• Taxis operate as well and are one of the most expensive choices but they offer a lot of flexibility and convenience, which is great for families with children or senior citizens.

Songkran Cambodia / Khmer New Year dates in 2025, 2026, and 2027

• 2025 – Khmer New Year falls from 13 to 15 April
• 2026 – Khmer New Year falls from 14 to 16 April
• 2027 – Khmer New Year falls from 14 to 16 April

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The post Songkran Cambodia: Water Fight Festival for Khmer New Year appeared first on Pipeaway.