Royal Farming Festival The
Royal Farming Festival is a traditional festival in the Kingdom of Cambodia. According to Cambodian custom, before the king presides over the ceremony of the Royal Ploughing Festival, the peasants are not allowed to plough, and they cannot act rashly even if they miss the farming time.
In the past, the king personally presided over the ceremony of the Royal Ploughing Festival in the holy field. Of course, the ceremonial ploughshares are not actually inserted into the soil to plough the land, but only symbolically walk on the plow. During the period of King Andong (reigned from 1841 to 1860), the king stopped helping the plow himself. During the Royal Farming Festival, all the activities of the king were replaced by the Minister of Agriculture, who was called the "Royal Farming King". At the same time, a person dressed as a fairy followed the plowing team sowing seeds. The fairy was called "Maiho" (meaning "Mother of the South"), and was represented by the wife of "King Yugong".
Since 1963, the annual Royal Ploughing Festival has been personally supported by the head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. The role of "Maho" was handed over to his daughter. After Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by the Lon Nol Group in 1970, the Royal Ploughing Festival was temporarily suspended, and resumed in 1994. In recent years, the "Royal Farming King" has been held by members of the royal family or major national leaders. For example, the sons of King Sihanouk, Prince Ranalie and Prince Yuvana, and the National Assembly Chairman Xie Xin have all served as the "Royal Farming King". "The role of "Mai Ho" is also played by their wives.
The Royal Ploughing Festival ceremony is very grand. The relevant departments began to rush around a week before the festival, looking for "sacred cows". The sacred ox should choose three pairs of sturdy bulls, and prepare three ploughs, one for each pair of oxen. The plough used by Cambodian farmers has only one handle, while the plough used in the Royal Plough Festival has two handles. On the day of the festival, ministers of civil and military affairs, diplomatic envoys from various countries in Cambodia and foreign guests were invited to take their seats at the reviewing stand. National holiday to celebrate.
According to religious traditions, on the evening of the first day of the first day of the last month of the sixth month of the Buddhist calendar, the sage "Bagu" who was preparing the ceremony of the Royal Ploughing Festival worshipped the Land God and asked the Land God to grant the "Holy Field" to hold the ceremony. The "Holy Field" is usually selected in the Wangjiatian in the north of the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh and the east of the National Museum. On the evening of the second and third day of the first day, a fire sacrifice ceremony is held in the "Holy Field". For this ceremony, skilled craftsmen built 5 brightly colored and dazzling circular pavilions around the holy field, each pavilion placed a Buddha statue, and in front of each Buddha statue a 3-story small earth mountain was built, and the center of the earth top was dug. A small square pit with a length, width and depth of 22 cm, the walls of the pit are coated with fresh cow dung, and nine dry woods about 15 cm long are placed in the pit. At the beginning of the ceremony, the "King of Royal Farming" lit the dry wood, the monks chanted and prayed, and the happy people circled the earth mountain, dipped the auspicious leaves in honey and oil, sprinkled it into the fire pit, and poured milk or butter slowly into the fire pit. Beg the gods to bless the harvest and the prosperity of the country and the people.
On the fourth day of the last day of June, people crowded "King Yugen" and "Mai Huo" to the round pavilion at the northwest corner of the "Holy Field" to worship the statue of Shiva, the god of destruction in Hinduism, and "Baku" blew the conch three times to express The Royal Ploughing Festival ceremony officially started, and the "Royal Plough King" set off with a plow. One plough was supported by the "Royal Plough King" who walked in the middle, and the two front and rear ploughs were controlled by two government officials. Behind the third plow, Maiho and a group of girls in national costumes sowed the best rice seeds to the left and right, chanting and praying for a good harvest. Every lap of farming, "Bagu" blows the conch as the horn. After three circles around the field, the farming ceremony came to an end. Then, the ploughing team walked to the east pavilion dedicated to Vishnu, the Hindu god of protection, and untied the red and green sacred ox from the plough.
In front of the pavilion on the east side are 7 silver plates, which hold 7 kinds of food, namely rice, beans, corn, sesame, fresh grass, water and wine. The Brahmin, the imperial master, sprinkled holy water on the heads of the two divine oxen led by the "King of the Farmer", praying for the divine ox to bring good omens, and then let them go to choose the food on the silver plate at will. The good and bad luck of the year. If the divine ox eats rice, beans, corn, and sesame, it is a harbinger of good weather and abundant grains. Which kind of grain is eaten more, it indicates that the crop will have a good harvest, and if it is eaten less, the harvest will be small; if the divine ox eats fresh grass, The omens of poor harvest of grain and even famine; the drinking of the divine ox indicates the occurrence of floods; the drinking of the divine ox indicates that there will be war and bandits will be rampant.
water festival
Every year on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of the Buddhist calendar (usually in November of the Gregorian calendar), the Cambodian people will solemnly celebrate their traditional festival, the Water Delivery Festival. On November 1, 2009, the annual Water Supply Festival kicked off in Phnom Penh. The city of Phnom Penh was adorned with national flags, bunting and slogans celebrating the festival. People are all dressed in festive costumes, and there is a festive atmosphere everywhere.
The Water Festival is one of the important festivals in Cambodia, and Phnom Penh City holds a three-day celebration every year. On the first day, the opening ceremony and preliminary competition of the dragon boat race will be held, and the light boat tour will be held in the evening.
Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is located at the junction of the Upper Mekong, Lower Mekong, Tonle Sap and Basa rivers. These four rivers stretch out into the distance like four huge arms, and merge into a wide water surface in the east of the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh. Cambodians call it "Four-sided River". The local overseas Chinese gave it a vivid and poetic name - four arm bay.
Every May in the Gregorian calendar, Cambodia enters the rainy season. The rising water of the Mekong River pours back into the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, along the Tonle Sap River, rapidly expanding the lake surface by 10 times. At the same time, the rain created the necessary conditions for farmers to sow and transplant rice, and farmers began to work intensively on the farmland. In November of the Gregorian calendar, Cambodia entered the dry season, and the Tonle Sap Lake began to flow back into the Mekong River and finally into the sea. At this time, the fish in the Tonle Sap Lake have grown up, and Cambodia has entered the fishing season; at the same time, the rice has also matured, and the farmers are ready to open their sickles to harvest. In order to thank the great benefits brought by the river water to the people, the Cambodian people have had the traditional habit of holding water festivals since ancient times. People respectfully send the river water that brought them a good harvest back to the sea to welcome the arrival of the harvest season.
There is another theory about the origin of the water festival: the Angkor era in the 12th century AD was the most prosperous period in Cambodia. From 1177 to 1181 AD, King Jayavarman VII of Cambodia personally led the navy to fight and defeated the army of the Champa Kingdom who had invaded the Cambodian territory. In the relief sculptures of the world-famous Angkor monuments Bayon Temple and Banteay Jama Temple in Cambodia, there is a pattern of King Jayavarman VII standing on the bow of the ship, holding a bow and arrow and a big stick, and heroically commanding the warship to charge the enemy. Since then, in order to commemorate the great victory of the navy, the people have held dragon boat races every year on the day they defeated the enemy. In today's water festival dragon boat race, there is a person on the bow of each boat waving a flag, oars, wooden sticks or three-pronged forks, etc., commanding the sailors, working together and taking the lead, imitating the posture of ancient warships in water warfare. At the same time, the Water Festival is also a Daqing event held to thank the king for his wise leadership and lead the people to build water conservancy, and to repay the water god for giving sufficient rainwater to promote a bumper agricultural harvest.
At 11:00 am on November 1, 2009, the Dragon Boat Competition of the Water Supply Festival held in Phnom Penh officially started. According to the report of the Dragon Boat Race Committee, a total of 391 dragon boats participated in the competition, including 90 express boats and 25,384 sailors. According to the regulations of the Organizing Committee of the Water Festival, the participating dragon boats are divided into two lines: inside and outside, and each group has two dragon boats to compete. The dragon boats will start from the Shuijinghua Bridge on the Tonle Sap River, and follow the water to the waters of the Four Arms Bay in front of the viewing platform.
At 6 o'clock in the evening on November 1, King Sihamoni presided over the lighting ceremony of the light boat, announcing the start of the light boat tour of the Water Festival. The nine light boats participating in the event appeared one by one on the Tonle Sap River in front of the Royal Palace. The first to appear was the light boat of the palace. It rowed to the front of the floating palace viewing platform and stopped, and the king himself lit several candles. Next are the light boats of the Senate, the Parliament, the Royal Government, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Tourism, and finally the light boat of the Phnom Penh Municipal Government. Thousands of colored light bulbs are installed on light boats of different shapes, various offerings are placed on the bow, and "holy water" is sprinkled. 9 light boats showing off colorful lights first advanced towards the waters in the direction of Shuijinghua Bridge, and then turned back to the waters of Four Arms Bay. Floating on the river, they are lit up with colorful lights, showing intricate patterns representing the logos of various departments, very beautiful. At night, beautiful fireworks bloom in the air, adding brilliant colors to the water festival. During the 3-day water festival, fireworks are set off by the river every night to create a festive atmosphere.
On the night of November 2, when the bright moon was full, King Sihamoni invited monks to recite scriptures in the palace as usual, presided over the worship of the moon, and eaten flat rice (a kind of food made of fried glutinous rice and then pounded flat). ) and a ceremony to predict the rainfall in 24 provinces and cities across Cambodia in the coming year. In the palace, candles symbolizing 24 provinces and cities were lit, and the candle oil was dripped on the banana leaves. Based on this, it was predicted which provinces and cities would have good weather and good harvests in the coming year.
At 12:00 in the middle of the night, people gather in Buddhist temples to worship the moon, eat flat rice and put water lanterns in the river. Water lanterns are a mass entertainment activity, the purpose is to pray for health and happiness, good weather and good harvest. People on both sides of the Tonle Sap River put water lanterns on the river. The water lantern is small and exquisite, made of glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaves, with candles on it. People light candles, push krathongs into the river, and let them drift down the water. It is said that the farther the lantern floats, the luckier the person. Countless sparkling small water lanterns float on the river, like the stars in the sky, colorful and spectacular, giving people the feeling of a crystal palace floating on the water.
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