austraLasia #2796
 
During the Chinese New Year... Papa Bosco!
Chhin Sieng reporting for Australasia News and DonBoscoAsia.info

 
SIHANOUKVILLE: 2 February 2011 --  The 2011 Colour Games to honor the Solemnity of Saint John Bosco took place on the campus of the Don Bosco Technical School in the sea port of Sihanoukville. Although the games were held at various moments throughout January, the big event took place on 31 January. The date coincided also with the Chinese New Year, a celebration of considerable importance in Cambodia with its many significant Chinese-Khmer.
    The entire student body, nearly 1,000 of them, were divided into four colours (hence 'Colour Games 2011'), red, blue, pink and yellow. The teams participated in different games and sports and their successes or losses were counted up on a large scoreboard. Teachers and Salesians were also included.
    The program began at 8:00 with some teachers and Salesian speeches recalling that 'Papa Bosco' was a man of holiness, happiness and love for what he was doing for youth like us. 'The purpose of the games is to join in happiness and become day by day a big family around Papa Bosco,' said a teacher to the crowd of youth that were strictly divided by the four colors and stood with their flags in disciplined fashion in front of the Papa Bosco statue. As we Cambodians could not miss out on a dance, it was a well-established fact and nobody could separate us from it! We danced around the statue of Papa Bosco, who, with his right hand extended to the East, was showing the future to a Cambodian bronze kid. We noticed also that the bronze Cambodian smile of Papa Bosco was evidently wider that day.
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 Editor's note: we are delighted to receive what is possibly the first item written by a Cambodian for this newsletter; terminologists will be interested, too, in a new cultural manifestation for Don Bosco.

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