• Society

National Culture Day Preserves Youth Theme

• By Po Sakun
• March 2, 2023 5:00 PM

PHNOM PENH – National Culture Day organizers have chosen the “Youth for the National Culture” theme for the nineth time.

Culture Ministry officials said the theme was in line with the Khmer proverb that youth is the bamboo shoot growing up to be bamboo and is a potential core strength.

Instead of only talking about their love of the culture, young people should take care of, protect, conserve and develop the culture, they said.

National Culture Day is now in its 25th year.

Ministry officials said young people can easily embrace good and bad knowledge. It was necessary to insert the idea of protecting the national culture among them. For this reason, the theme remained meaningful enough to be the event’s concept this year.  

Chamroeun Vantha, advisor of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said the theme aims to urge young Cambodians in the country and abroad to actively participate in conserving, promoting and developing the national culture.

Especially, it aims to encourage young people to learn about the culture to create new creative work based on the foundation of the nation’s identity.

Vantha said youth was the core strength for taking responsibility in protecting the civilization which is the nation’s identity. Young people should have a nationalism mentality and know the values of the national culture.

“During my generation, we used to play bos angkunh or tug of war on Khmer New Year and I always told my children to play these traditional games too,” he said.

“However, do young people nowadays play those? They don’t tell their kids about the games anymore.

“That’s why I want the youth to be responsible in conserving and developing the national culture. Youth is around 60% of the total population, therefore, that makes it easier to protect the culture.

“They can learn the other cultures, but don’t forget about their own.”

Ministry spokesperson Long Pona Siriwadh said there would be no competition for artwork this year because it was short on time for organization due to the pandemic.

“As we could not predict when the COVID-19 would be managed completely and the competition would take at least three to four months across the provinces and then in the capital, we decided not to organize any competition,” he said.

The ministry, nevertheless, had carried out cultural activities for the whole year. These included the proposal to register tangible and intangible culture as heritages to the UNESCO, the registering of other cultural heritage at national level, training related to and on the national cultural arts, as well as competitions.

The National Culture Day is organized to remind people that Cambodia has the day, the spokesperson added.

“Youth for the National Culture” means that to protect the culture, the next generation, especially youth, must be taught about it. Youth is the bamboo shoot growing up to be bamboo, meaning that young people are the nation successors.

“Such perspective on responsibility has to be taught to them. They play an important role in putting into practice what the old generation have taught them and passing it on to the next generation, so it can strengthen the society,” the spokesperson said.

Vantha said also that the National Cultural Day is important for Cambodia, commemorating Khmer ancestors who sacrificed their physical, mental, and intelligent strength to create, take care of and protect the diverse, priceless, cultural arts for the next generations.

The date for National Culture Day has been set for two phases: a week before and a week after March 3. The ministry will promote the work related to sustainable conservation, development, and enhancement of the culture with world heritage sites and resorts, as well as other events.

Prime Minister Hun Sen was due to preside over a celebration of the 25th National Cultural Day on March 2 and a solidarity dinner with more than 4,000 artists at the Koh Pich Center in Phnom Penh.

National Culture Day was organized first in 1999 with the theme of “Legacy of Jayavarman VII”.