Southeast Asian Water Festival

Merrimack River-Sampas Pavlion

Lowell Heritage State Park- Lowell,Massachusetts

Major funding has been provided by the Theodore Edson Parker foundation

A bout the Southeast Asian Water Festival

For centuris in southeast asian, the water Festival has celebrated importance of water in aspects of life.Water has always represented prosperity,life and goodness to the Southeast Asian people. 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 forgivness for "dirtying " the water- for example by using it to irrgate soil

Fishermen and farmers rely on their rivers,lakes and ponds for their livelihood. Villages sprout next to riverbacks.in recent years,water has also come to symbolize economic development. khy Taing Lime, director of the National Mekong River Commission,said, "Water is our soil,our mines of gold,our main natural resource...we must use our water to export, and get foreign currency to develop the country"

During the races,known as Bon Om Tuk in Khmer or Boun Song Hae in Laotian,.people of all ages gather at the riverbanks to sing, dance,and watch the rowing races for three days in min-November.

In lowell, the Southeast Asian Water Festival grew out of the Southeast Asian Environmental health Partnership, which has been funded for four years by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.The Combodian Mutual Association, the Lowell Community Health Center, the Lao Family Mutual Assistance Association,and the U-Mass lowell's Center for family, work and Community currently from the working partnership.The vision of the Festival is to recreate a time- honored Southeast Asian tradition to encourage the community to work toward many common goals and to learn with the Southeast Asian community about important environmental and health issues.Most importantly, to share with one another the rich tradition and cultures of Southeast Asian.

We hope you and your family will enjoy the festival as much as we enyoy orgazing it. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the many supporters and volunteers who have been helping us to make festival come true. we look forward to seeing you at the Merrimack River on the next coming years.

Best Regard,

Mr.Samkhann Khoeun, Combodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell, Inc

Mr.Blong Xiong, Lao Family Mutual Assistance Association

Dr.Linda Silka, U-mass Lowell Center for family, work,and Community

Mr.Richard Scott, Lowell Heritage State Park