The Fall River Cambodian community celebrated the Year of the Dragon: Cambodian New Year with an annual flag raising ceremony on April 6, 2024. Due to inclement weather, the event was moved indoors. Don Gan served as the MC, guiding attendees through a program that included a blessing from seven venerable monks, several guest speakers, music and dance performances, the flag raising, and a Chayam group parade. Venerable Soai Chim, Chief Abbot of Wat Udam Sahar in Fall River, offered blessings and wished attendees happiness, long life, and good health for the new year, which is officially celebrated from April 13-16, 2024. Mayor Paul E. Coogan of Fall River presented mayoral citations to several individuals and groups for their commitment and volunteer service to the Cambodian community and its traditions. Recipients included the Mass Aspara Dance Troop, the Mass Aspara Instrumental/Musicians Group, Uk Samon, Rang Puk, Soara Ang, and St. Luke's Episcopal Church. The Mayor also issued an official City Proclamation, declaring April 13th to 16th as the start of the Cambodian New Year in Fall River, highlighting the cultural significance and traditions of the three-day celebration. Sophia Hunt, President of the Cambodian community in Fall River, and other speakers like City Council member Linda Pereira, Reverend Jim Hornsby, Bang Po from South Coastal County Legal Services, and Master Samon, also shared remarks, emphasizing the importance of preserving Cambodian culture and acknowledging community support. The event concluded with a blessing dance performance by Jennifer and Sue, followed by the flag raising ceremony and the Chayam parade. Attendees were invited to enjoy Cambodian cuisines prepared by volunteers at St. Luke's Church. Speakers expressed gratitude for the community's support and the city's embrace of Cambodian traditions, with Sophia Hunt calling for the younger generation to continue these cultural efforts.
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well good afternoon
0:12everyone uh just wanted to say salutations to our venerable monks and salutations to uh all of our uh guests special guests uh our friends uh we are here today to uh do our annual flag raising ceremony and uh to start off with I'd like to uh talk about the program schedule a little bit so everyone is aware of uh uh the events and uh my name is uh don Gan and I will
0:42be the MC uh for us uh today and uh basically the agenda is that because of uh uh weather conditions not cooperating uh we are uh we have moved the event inside uh for the most part uh we're going to do the introduction uh and we're going to start off with the Monk's blessing uh followed by uh guest speakers we have a special guests that are uh graciously joined us today for
1:11this uh event uh afterwards we have uh music uh dance performances uh followed by uh the uh Chim uh group uh actually flag raising and Then followed by the chayam group um so uh just wanted to speak a little bit in kamay uh so that way all of our venerable monks can uh uh understand the event as
1:46welle fore speech spee
1:58speech forign speech fore speeech speech foreign foreign speech
2:28foreign without further Ado um uh we actually have uh uh seven monks uh who are joining us today uh several of from Cambodia so I'd like to introduce uh uh the chief Abbot of uh What dakos andam uh a Venable uh CH and uh uh accompanied accompanying his venerable are uh several months uh from uh two monks from the wat toam in Providence Rhode Island Venable and uh Venable W Le no uh then
3:09we have two monks who came from Cambodia to join the New Year celebration to also tour America uh their names are CH bat and K uh and uh obviously we have our uh Chief Abbot soai Chim who is the uh Chief Abbot of the uh wat udam Sahar in Fall River uh Rhode Island and he is also accompanied by uh his
3:44vener speech fore speee fore spe speech
4:26spee so so uh the we're going to do the blessing and we would ask everybody to stand up uh and uh to to welcome uh accept the blessings uh afterward uh his venerable saai Chim will say a few
4:49words first of all I would like pay homade to the Venable man and I would like to say good evening to all of you especially the mayor of the for River and the officer in the for River and All Guest here and I would like to say um happy Cambodian new year the Year of the Dragon yeah the year of the dragon and I will like you to happiness and long
5:35life and good luck and good H yes
5:53and fore speech foreign speech speech forign speech speech for speech foreign speech speech forch foreign
6:21speech fore speech foreign foreign for Fore forign spee foreign speech foreign speech foreign foreign speech speech fore speech foreign for speech fore forch uh today uh we very happy to join here to Cambodian fled resting ceremony and we celebrate for the uh Che the new yearian new year that we will be held on uh 13 14 16 April 2024 so we thank you all that spend a lot of time to join this uh Cambodian
7:46flight racing ceremony here thank you so much
8:28for
8:42thank you so
8:57much uh can ask uh so the the blessing uh is over and then we can start the rest of the uh program so um we have a special guest here among which uh you know uh very uh familiar face who is uh the mayor of uh Fall River uh mayor Paul E Coogan uh mayor please uh come up and uh uh
9:36I almost went down there on the way up um first of all I want to thank everybody for coming out today I mean it's a little bit rough outside so I'm glad we have the ability to move in and uh be flexible um I think I'll do the proclamation last but first we want to acknowledge some people in the community that have uh that have done some very positive things to improve the quality
9:59of life in the city of Fall River so we're going to give out some mayoral citations um in honor and recognition of their volunteer service to the Cambodian community and their commitment to Cambodian um Traditions the mass aspara dance troop uh is there someone here from that groupy mass AB dance gr ABS I said it wrong right that's okay
10:42foreign foreign
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11:15one picture right here we go one two three one more thank you thank you thank you guys the instrumental I'm assuming that's the same thing the instrumental is the same thing it's the a group musicians so mayor also would like to
11:58recognize
12:28for
12:49the next individual to receive a citation is Joshua amarello for his commitment and recognition and support of the Cambodian commun in fall river is Joshua with us okay we'll put that to the side so Joshua Genie okay okay so he he stepped aside okay Genie Salomon is jeie with us Genie not here okay UK saman with us so in honor and recognition of his commitment and support for the Cambodian
13:46Community congratulations she she taught me how to say this before the meeting so I better get it right but rang PUK in honor and recognition of her commitment and support for the Cambodian community in Fall River I probably said it wrong so I I said it right
14:26okay soara Ang again in honor and recognition of his commitment and support for the Cambodian community in Fall
14:51River and of course uh one of the strong advocates for a long long time in Fall River for the U camp Cambodian community in honor and recognition of their commitment their longtime commitment in support for the Cambodian community in Fall River St Luke's Episcopal Church this is Reverend
15:27Hornsby
15:42one okay and this is an official City Proclamation the city of Fall River honors the diversity of its people by celebrating different customs and traditions passed down to Future Generations the city welcomes these kind of generations Cambodian command New Year or Cambodian New Year generally falls on the 13th to 14th of April every year as per the ancient chamir horoscope reading 2024 is
16:13called The Year of the Dragon the New Year celebration starts on September 13th whereas the chamir New Year marks the official end of the harvest season in Cambodia and the commencement of the rainy season as with other celebrations in Cambodian the cir New Year involves practicing the best of rituals and traditions the holiday includes three days of celebrations with their own names and Associated
16:43Traditions MOA srant New Year's day is the first day of Celebration and the start of the chir new year on this day each member of the family works hard cleaning and decorating the house and arranging food food and drinks on the T on the table for welcoming the Angels verak vanat the day of giving is the second day of the chir new year is dedicated to the acts of Charity a day
17:14spent donating gifts to the Elders of the family which include parents grandparents and offering money clothes and food to the less fortunate fari Lon Sak is the day of cleansing it's the third day of the chir new year is about bidding farewell to the year gone by and welcoming the new year with new hopes people celebrate this day by performing ritualistic ceremonies of washing and cleaning and
17:41the Lord Buddha statues with scented water to bring longevity good luck happiness and prosperity so therefore I Paul Coogan the mayor of the city of Fall River do hereby Proclaim April 13th to the 16th as the start of the Cambodian New Year in the city of Fall River and we urge all citizens to join me for this very special observance congratulations and thank you you want to get it sure give it to
18:12you thank you so much mayor and these were the people that went here thank you so much thank you so much for the proclamation mayor uh microphone went dead again yes so uh very elaborate uh discussion or uh uh description of uh the kamay new year uh thank you so much I do I I am the Miss uh in river we do a lot of work together for the community I do want to
18:51acknowledge two people that are also here that support these type of events all the time Brad joined us and City
19:19coun okay yes uh uh thank you so much mayor and there are a lot of people who are here who made this event uh possible and I didn't uh acknowledge uh a lot of folks but uh you know I ran into uh Reverend Susan Lee uh from St Luke's Church obviously and uh also um you know there's a couple other names that I will mention here as well uh but Lauren I met
19:46earlier Jeff who's helping with the flag uh raising uh Alex who I met at the uh Hall there so and then obviously uh uh Pam and Ryan from uh Fred TV uh so a lot of uh many uh guests who are here who are in support of our new year and uh uh thank you so much um the next uh guest speaker that I'd like to uh call up is
20:10uh uh sopia hunt uh uh please come up uh Sophia is the uh uh president of the Cambodian community in Fall River uh everybody knows her I know her thank you thank you Don um for speech spech speech for speech foreign fore speech okay okay for spe I want to say thank you everyone for being here and um okay Mr M thank you for over here to support us and Lauren such a beautiful
21:13young generation thank you and also um Pam my beautiful lady you're over here I love you and also Linda Linda forever Linda you and I have a long way thank you and her husband and Jim and Susan I remember 38 years ago when I came here Jim picked me up from airport and I met Jim and Susan they they made me grow who I am today by helping my family came to us
21:45and I would like to before I say anything I want to say please have a little pray for Marin vad he want a Cambodian Community he was one of my advisor he was passed away 3 years ago by Co and I never forget him please remember him and pray for him thank you and also I love for rer fora is my city okay and for such a big supporter for our
22:18community here and we celebrate on our Cambodian flags for our new year every year was have such a wonderful friend family who I have uh came from low I have a few other people from from Providence they they they they they draw a long way here just to celebrate with us it make me feel so special and I have such a wonderful people I work with I have uh
22:48Josh uh thank you for letting us use the office without charging and we have your recognition here I want to say thank you so much Josh okay and Anthony thank for being here Anthony from prasan Court yeah we have uh Missing Jen she one of partner art culture and she's not here she love she's not Cambodia she Chinese but she love Cambodia culture what she do is try to promote all the culture together
23:19performances and also um I want to say thank you Mom Mom Tim and noi and all the parent that have a kid in a dance troop some our dance troop or performances or t we went to like an hour drive 2 hour the parent willing to go there and I just want to make a short example because um we run out time and I want to say thank you Alex for helping
23:49Alex Alex speak of few Cambodia surprise me sorry he don't look like Cambodia to me but he speak Cambodia and also B uh sap ra thank you for help translate all the letter all the paper with the city thank you so much without charging thank you for your honor we got you know and also we have um Denis Dennis and Sandy they're not here but they helping me grow too with our culture they try to
24:18fight for me to get some money instead us spend like money we spend like thousands of dollars to keep the dance and the music alive because we love our culture I grow up I love to dance I used to love to be a dancer but I don't I did went to but I don't have the opportunity because my parents poor they want me to work and clean instead go dancing okay
24:41that's why we decide I met a partner who is Randy we decide to keep Cambodia to this Dan and also instrument alive we want to show America that we here and we have beautiful culture this year and every time we perform everyone love our performing and make me feel so special that I do the right thing if I miss you anyone please forgive me because usually I speak I do not write
25:10down but I do today but I still space out uh I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year happy happy New Year the year of dragon very powerful make you wish you will get your wish come true and Dawn of course the best MC and we have our cameraman who is Champ Cham he go to L everywhere with us we drag him and anyone know I miss I'm sorry and that's
25:39all I have to say I want to say thank you for all the D TR uh this is for you guys I'm not going to be here too long I want one of you that Young Generation take over this so I can go on vacation okay 38 year I never go back to Cambodia yet I really want to go so please somebody that want to stop up take this over please okay thank you so much
26:13and uh there's also an MC position open too uh so uh thank you uh sopia uh next I'd like to acknowledge uh Linda Pereira uh I don't know if you have a speech or something do you want to say okay yeah please come up uh Linda is a city council uh member in uh the city of uh Fall River I wore a heavy jacket because last year it was really windy out there so I'm glad that
26:46you brought it in but now I'm overdressed all I want to say is we are so blessed in Fall River to have so many different cultures and we are so happy to have the Cambodian culture as one Sophia and I go way back when I was working she interned with me for a while so I got to learn a lot about the Cambodian culture so as one of the monks
27:09said um happy new year and it's the year of the dragon and may we be filled with health and happiness this year thank you all very much uh thank you Linda uh next gentleman goes way back and uh he's a reverend of St Luke uh episc uh Episcopal uh Church uh Jim Hornsby uh please welcome oh thank you for inviting me uh this Gathering is not really about any
27:56one of us this ga Gathering is about all of us and the Cambodian Community which came it will be 45 years next August and some as I learned today why even some of the people who came with children are now grandparents and so theity city of Fall River and the state of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and wherever people have gone some went to California are wherever they we are richer we are richer for the presence of
28:47the Cambodian Community here and elsewhere thank you all uh thank you Reverend uh next is uh I'd like to welcome uh bang PO for uh to say a few words uh if you uh if you'd like and uh uh she's a part of the uh South Coastal County Legal Services uh in Fall River rhod Island please welcome fore for foreign speech good afternoon
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32:22fore uh thank you bang uh for uh providing the uh purpose uh of the nonprofit organization South Coastal County Legal Services uh to help the immigrants and uh lwi income individuals to seek Legal Services uh the the next person I'd like to acknowledge is uh Jeanie Solomon unfortunately she is not here uh she is uh heading the aapi which is the Asian-American and Pacific Islander uh
32:55nonprofit organization I've worked with her uh a few times and uh uh unfortunately she couldn't make it today um there's a few other folks that uh Vandy wanted me to acknowledge uh is uh Patty Rigo uh is Patty here no no okay and uh she's the uh executive director of uh Viva Fall River and uh another individual I spoke to earlier is Antonio Rodriguez uh so just want to acknowledge uh thank you for coming here
33:30um and uh another individual that uh Vandy wanted me to acknowledge uh is uh uh luru or uh master samon who is the master of Cambodian musics and cultural and arts uh so he came up earlier to receive a maror citation UHA uh uh
34:08speech spech foreign for forign speech foreign speech forign speech foreign forch for foree spee foreign foreign foreign forch fore foreign speech foreign forch for speech foreign for for foreign speech foreign foreign speech for speech speech fore foreign speech forign speech foreign speech foreign speech foreign foreign forign speech foreign foreign speech speech foreign for speech foreign speech foreign foreign
35:43speech for spee fore speech foreign foreign speech foreign speech for speech for spee fore foreign speech forign speech speech for speech foreign spe speech foreign speech for speech forign speech for speech for speech for foree fore award uh so my uh quick translation of uh uh Mr um M uh Master Oak samon is uh that he acknowledges his mayor he he acknowledges sopia hunt and he
36:54acknowledges Vandy Chun uh he feels very honored to be a part of this event uh in the preservation of the Cambodian Traditions uh the music the culture the flag raising uh so that is very important to the preservation of the Cambodian nationality and uh he wishes uh everyone peace prosperity good health uh and uh uh good luck in this new year uh that's my quick synopsis of what he had
37:25said uh so uh next next individual that uh like to acknowledge is uh uh the mass UPS director dance troop director uh Vandy Chuan uh please come
37:51upe for speech spee um okay Jim um uh okay for speech fore speech forch fore like to say thank you Josh back there he's a big sponsor um at uh EMP yeah and uh also uh yeah actually everyone's over here thank youon um I'm trying to think because there's so many names for speech spe foreign speech for foreign speech foreign speech for and uh thank you Susan that being here again and Linda
39:39Perera uh Mr oh actually thank you to Mr Paul kou and the mayor of uh City for River he's hiding over there that's why and thank you to the cameraman Alejandro um everyone that here thank you all
40:10uh oh thank you to uh probation officer from the courthouse and his name Antonio Rodriguez thank you for being here yeah um okay fore
40:38speeech speech for speech okay okay thank you everyone being here to support Cambodia community and the mass Troup and the T group and uh I have uh fore foreign foreign spe foreign for speech forign speech foreign speech foreign speech foreign for speech my favor I hope so okay thank you uh thank you VY tun um next is the dance performance uh after the dance performance we will proceed outside for
41:47the flag raising after the flag raising we will do the chaien parade and after the chaien parade uh we uh certainly welcome everyone to have Refreshments uh at the uh um St Luke's Church uh so we have volunteers who've made uh uh delicious Cambodian Cuisines uh to uh you know for everyone to enjoy uh and uh without further Ado please uh uh welcome the uh the dance uh performance uh
42:20Jennifer and sue for uh the blessing dance
42:56a
43:07good job shutle up H shut up WI yeah
43:50oh let them go by W you there you go oh