CULTURE SPLASH
Waterfront festival returns to city
WOONSOCKET — With menacing, black storm clouds brewing on the horizon, a dozen dragon boat rowers sit under a tent on the bank of the Blackstone River at Cold Spring Park, eyes closed and hands folded in supplication as three Buddhist monks from Wat Lao Buddhist Temple in Woonsocket offer a traditional blessing.
The rhythmic chants grow louder as a gusty breeze begins to churn the water on the river, the smoke from jasmine incense hanging heavy in the air.
“It’s a Buddhist blessing of protection for the peo- ple to be safe during the races,” says Val Khamsomphon, founder of the Woonsocket Southeast Asian Waterfront Festival, which kicked off Saturday at the park.
This was the Southeast Asians American United of Rhode Island’s seventh year holding the popular festival, and its second year in Woonsocket where hundreds of people from across Rhode Island and beyond were expected to attend the festival, which continues today.
The festival, which was held for five years in Scituate, is held each year to promote and protect the
culture of the people of Southeast Asia who live in Woonsocket and throughout Rhode Island. A big part of that culture are the rivers, which play a central role in the lives of millions of people in Southeast Asia. They provide fish, fresh water, fertile silt, transportation, recreation and many other essential functions.
Countries in Southeast Asia such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand often celebrate the New year following the Buddhist calendar with the traditional water festivals.
“This is something we want to do to preserve our heritage and culture,” says Khamsomphon, who lives in Providence.
Buddhist scripture explains that the Water Festival is held to thank the spirit of the water, to pray for evil spirits to go away, and to honor the Dragon King who dwells in the water. The festival also asks the water spirit for forgiveness for ‘dirtying’ the water – for example, by using it to irrigate soil.
Water is at the heart of the mid-April festivals which marks the beginning of the monsoon season and later in the year to mark the end of the rainy season. In the four Buddhist-majority countries – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand – water is celebrated and signifies the washing away of sins and rancor, to give thanks, and wish for happiness and prosperity. In those countries, water is both spiritually and physically essential in life
The festival at Cold Spring Park featured traditional Southeast Asian cuisine, music, and traditional dance performances. The centerpiece of the festival was the dragon boat races along the Blackstone River, which featured more than 12 teams of rowers competing for prizes.
There were more than 20 vendors set up near the river beneath colorful tents selling tea, coconut juice and exotic sugar can juice.
Sweet, refreshing and wonderfully cheap; ‘Nuoc Mia’ as they say in Vietnamese, is the raw juice extracted from the sugar cane right before your eyes. You’ll find it for sale at street stalls all across Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and parts of Thailand. At the festival, there were piles of sugar cane stalks, which were put through an ancient-looking metal contraption with a hand powered crank to extract the juice, the perfect cool-medown on a hot summer day.
There were stalls selling plenty of grilled spicy sweet ginger-garlic chicken wings, and the Southeast Asian classic papaya salad, which combines papaya, chilies, fish sauce, peanuts, dried shrimp and tomato.
Other vendors were selling traditional Southeast Asian clothing, including the traditional Cambodian sampot (a woman’s long skirt with a fold or pleat in the front), and hundreds of varieties of colorful silk skirts, blous- es and scarves.
And yet another stand was selling ornate gold-lacquered offering bowls, which are typically filled with fruit, incense and money and offered at Buddhist temples.
There were several vendors selling live potted plants, including chili peppers, basil and jasmine, including Sopsape Pepper and her helper, Steve Thomas, who brought their organically grown Thai eggplant, Lemongrass and Lime Basil up from New Jersey. They are making the festival rounds in New England and will be heading to the annual Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival in Lowell, Mass. on Aug. 18. One of the larges Asian water festivals in the country, the Lowell festival is held the third Saturday in August and draws more than 60,000 people from around the country and the world.
Woonsocket festival co-organizer Sivixay Nhonvongsouthi said the Woonsocket Southeast Asian Water Festival is not only a celebration of the connection of water to all aspects of life, it is an effort to promote and protect the heritage and culture of the people of Southeast Asia.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, there are 36,763 Asians living in Rhode Island, approximately 16,787 of them are Southeast Asians (Burmese, Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong, Laotian, Thai, and Vietnamese); 3,380 Laotians live in Rhode Island; and 1,430 live in Woonsocket.
“We are hoping that festivals like this will be passed on to our youth so they can be protected and preserved for future generations,” he said.