Source: The Missourian
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/04/13/boone-cambodian-new-year/
Easter weekend has always had a singular feel around Boone County.
Church parking lots and sanctuaries are conspicuously fuller than usual. Families and loved ones gather together dressed in their best, and children can be found running wildly, basket in hand, in search of pastel eggs. Traditions such as these help make this a joyful time of the year, but the hallowed Christian holiday wasn’t the only sacred event celebrated in Boone County this weekend.
The Wat Angkor Cambodian Buddhist Temple near Hallsville on Old Highway 63 played host to an entirely different tradition from halfway around the globe: the Cambodian New Year festival or Chol Chnam Thmey in the Khmer language.
While the temple is always an interesting place to visit in Boone County, it was an authentic and colorfully enchanting slice of Cambodia as Cambodian Buddhists from all over gathered together to commemorate the holiday.