Khmer New Year
New Year's festival when Khmers clean and decorate their houses, make offerings and play traditional games.During the Khmer New Year Festival, youths gather to play popular traditional games such as Chaol Chhoung (throwing a ball) and Bas Angkunh (throwing brown seeds). The youths are normally divided into female and male teams to play these games. In some parts of Cambodia, e.g. Siem Reap and Battambang, they play a game known as the "Trot Dance". Trot performers dance and ask for alms from house to house in their village. A man will ride on a long curved stick with a deer's head on one side and with a cluster of grass on the other side like the deer's tail. Two men pretend to be hunters and are armed with a crossbow. When they receive alms they will donate it for the benefit of the local pagoda. In villages along the Mekong Riverinthe province of Kandal women gather to rowboats in front of the pagodas. This action is believed to appease the crocodiles. This custom originated long ago when many crocodiles lived in the river. In some villages, people trample on effigies to appease the ghosts that live in the trees near the pagodas and ask for happiness in the coming year. The Khmer people will gather together and visit pagodas and temples on the occasion of the Khmer New year. Each year many residents from other provinces visit Angkor Wat to worship to the powerful gods and trace their ancestors' heritage.