Khmer Christmas Tree
Yesterday, after teaching grade 10 with my counterpart Ken, I began talking about how I wanted to build a Christmas tree out of bamboo and palm leaves. After a few minutes, he told me to come to his house, saying that he had the bamboo I needed and the palm leaves. After treking through his 200 acre backyard in search of bamboo, we came upon a few pieces that looked about right. After chopping it and hauling it back, I was the already weird white man, but this time in tow with two 5 foot long bamboo sticks and a giant half of a palm leaf (around 10 feet long) walking down the street. By the time I reached home, my host aunt, sister, and rest of the group were already home, looking at me the way they tend to do when I do something weird.
As I began drilling holes in the bamboo while blasting christmas music, I can only imagine what was going through their heads. By the time I got to the palm leaf attachments, my host family knew I was attempting to build something, so they took to helping. With about 4 Khmers and me chopping up palm leaves and organizing them into the holes I had fashioned, the ‘tree’ was completed in about 1 hour. As I walked upstairs to set it up on my balcony, I was nothing more than touched at how much help and work had gone into making this symbol of Christmas all the way in Cambodia.
By the end of the evening, I had fashioned decorations out of anything I could find, (cellcard minute cards, duster feathers, fake flowers, dr. Pepper can, a soccer ball with feathers and flowers sticking out of it, and some Cambodian Riel) However, by the time I woke up this morning, there was so much more on the tree than as I had left it, as well as adjustments that I was too lazy to fix. My family, overnight had helped make my Christmas tree even more unique by adding their own touches to it, making it truly unlike anything I had seen before. My host aunt now refers to it as the Christmas tree bird.
Just when I feel as if I am truly in another world, things like this come out of nowhere to surprise me. I had originally planned on erecting this Christmas tree by myself, but as the event progressed, it truly became a community activity. It may not be the most beautiful tree, the most organized, or even made of pine, but the care that went into it and the help I received from my family and friends is what truly makes this so special to me. I guess that’s what Christmas really is when it boils down to the sappy movies and songs. It’s about family, friends, and helping your fellow man. Not just the snow, the egg nog, and all the other fun stuff, but this sense of togetherness. The fact that my host family had no idea what I was doing, but we still managed to put together something like this puts a smile on my face. Every time I look at that tree this month, it won’t be hard to remember how it got there in the first place.
Great start to my 25 days of Christmas
-Matt
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