Sunrise & Sundorne News

Karen new Year in Mae La Oon Camp

Yaung Nii Oo school dance group

Shorthly before Christmas, Karen new year festival took place. As we mentioned

in a previous post, there are many new years, as many as there are ethnic peoples.

The dates vary and they are usually based on the lunar calendar. Here in Thailand

were 3 weeks away from Songkran, the theravada boudhist new year, celebrated

in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. But i'm getting carried away...!

To celebrate Karen New year, dance groups rehearse and perform the

Dawn Dance. The "Dawn Dance" (nothing to do with dawn, it means New Year)

are performed by boys and grils, men and women. Actually the dancers sing and

dance at the same time, while drummers play. One must be pretty fit to finish a

complete song because the dances are fairly energetic. The songs are happy and

very catching, the dancers dress up in traditional clothing, proud to continue their

cultural heritage.

Rehearsals

Practicing the Karen Dawn dance for Karen New year

Click here to watch the video

Rehearsal

The new year festival

Sunrirse students dance in front of the whole of Mae La Oon refugee camp

On the day, people gathered from all around the camp. Some people have to walk for an

hours to reach the festival grounds. The drum and the buffalo horns you can see on the gate

are the emblems of Karen people, the sunrising is part of the Karen flag.

After much waiting, we're ready to dance!

It means a lot for Sunrise school students to perform for the New Year festival because they can be shuned by other schools for learning in a schools that uses Burmese as the teaching language. By performing the Dawn dance, they show their love of Karen culture and assert thier identity as Karen youth.

Yaung Nii Oo student did a wonderful performance that night, demonstrating that the new generations will continue to care fro Karen traditions and arts.

Here is all the information on the Xmas festival at Sunrise School. Thank you everybody for your fund raising and support, as you will see it was much appreaciated and well spent!

raining misty weather for christmas

The Xmas festival for Sunrise students was full of fun activities. The first day started by the sport tournament with 5 teams taking part. It was a misty winter morning.

After playing football, badminton, Chin Lone and Htoh See Toh, the players took a rest for the next day's event: Fundraising food fair to donate to the elderly in the refugee camp and a dance and music show in the evening.Christmas mass was celebrated at the school too.

Yellow team

Opening ceremony for Christmas sport
competion
-Nyunt Baun team (mixed team)

Green team

Blue Team

Supporters

Football tournament

Girls football team- Half time

Girls back in the field

Boy's turn

Chin Lone (Takraw) played with feet and head only, the ball is made woven cane

Badminton

HToh See Toh

Htoh See Toh

Second Day: Food fair for fundraising

Elder people are very much respected and the younger generation takes care of them.

In the refugee camp, there are very little ways to earn money and this is even harder for older people, so students decided to fund raise and donate to the elders at Christmas.