On April 15, around 250 people attended the New Years Festival, hosted by the University of Massachusetts Thai Student Association (TSA), Lao and Cambodian Student Association (LCSA) and Myanmar Student Association (MSA) in the Campus Center Auditorium.
The New Year celebration season is big in many southeast Asian countries during April 13 to April 16.
In Cambodia, the new year is known as Choul Chnam Thmey, translated to English as “Enter the New Year,” or Moha Sangkranta in Sanskrit. In Lao, the new year is called Pi Mai. In Myanmar, the new year is called Thingyan from Sanskrit, and in Thailand, the new year is called Songkran.
MSA was chartered, or founded, in the fall of 2022 and the TSA was founded in the fall of 2024, Michelle Nicholls, the advisor for the TSA and MSA said. LCSA is still a student interest group and is in the process of trying to become an RSO. Having three different organizations hosting one event is an interesting and fun intersection of people, planning and collaborations, she said.
Throughout the evening, students, faculty, alumni and community members partook in games like limbo, shan koe mee, klah klok, tug of war and gonggi to win prizes including a skin care basket, a drink duo basket, gift cards, a box of probiotic gummies, a snack basket, boba tea protein, a lego flower set and more.
Sponsors of the prizes included Kung Fu Tea, Yeo’s Level 99, Poppi, Happy Cow, Fly by Jing, Boda Borg, Joyn, Grillo’s Pickles, Shake Shack, Memory Shop and others.
The outreach to get the prizes through sponsors and bring alumni, community members and students from other colleges was a large initiative that was made difficult by a thin budget, according to Nicholls.
“People become really creative when it comes to finding additional ways to support their events,” Nicholls said. “I know that they also do a lot of fundraising on their own. They’ll do different drink fundraisers in the Student Union … so it’s really cool to see how much effort is being put into this because it’s obviously very rewarding to see as an advisor.”
Though Nicholls would like to see more collaborations happening in the future, cultural RSOs don’t have as much space on campus as other clubs and struggle to get times and dates for popular locations on campus to hold events.
Refreshments ranging from sweet teas to soy-based drinks were paired with food like Tod Mun, Laab Gai, Tohu Gyaw and Pandan Sago donated by SouLao’d Kitchen in Springfield. Lena Redd, co-owner of the restaurant, said that some of the students who put the festival together had come to the restaurant and students made a connection with Redd.
To better connect and be a resource for the students, Redd said that they would assist the clubs because they remembered “what it was like when we were students trying to just let our community be known.” The partnership also functions as a resource for the students. When the clubs reached out asking about a sponsorship opportunity, Redd and the restaurant were able to donate money and food.
“I think food is culture and I think that food is love,” Redd said. “I think some of the best experiences and conversations happen over really good food so when we’re around really good food naturally some of the best conversations really just happen.”
The restaurant focuses on honoring its heritage and history of Lao culture “because nobody knows about the Lao people due to the U.S. secret war,” Redd said. To educate people, Redd put the history “right on our menu.”
When Redd was a member of the Asian American Student Association at the American International College (AIC) in Springfield, her mom would cater their events with cultural Lao dishes American students weren’t used to. Students would come to the events and eat the free food, but wouldn’t understand the significance of the history behind keeping the Lao culture alive and providing a platform for Lao students after the U.S. secret war.
From 1964-1973, the United States conducted a secretive bombing campaign that dropped two million tons of ordnance on the country “every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years” in order destroy communist supply lines on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and support anti-communist forces in Laos during the Vietnam War.
The “culture of silence” around this part of American history negatively impacted many Lao immigrant families to this day. But “for the students to do what they’re doing today … and to see it revived through the UMass campus … to have Lao, Thai, Cambodian [and] Myanmar platform at a school like this [is] huge,” Redd said.
There are still struggles within culture communities as the Trump administration’s federal actions impact international students across the country, state and campus. A large part of why these struggles are so difficult, according to Redd, is that people “don’t know how to proceed because we don’t know what policy we’re supposed to fight when we don’t when the policy changes every day.”
To stay strong within their communities, “students should step up and step out and really find a voice for who they are,” Redd said. “Know themselves in their own heart and to stay true to themselves. Know that it’s okay to be who you are and it’s safe to be who you are. Know that you are not alone [and] that there are people who are fighting for you that you don’t know about.”
Celina Chea, the previous president of LCSA who graduated in May 2024, said that the celebration brought a larger crowd than the year before, and it was “nice to see everyone come out to [celebrate] the Southeast Asian culture especially for the New Year.”
“I know that a lot of people enjoy coming together like this and eating good food, listening to good music, seeing good dances and all the fun stuff,” Chea said. Everyone is encouraged to join “as long as you have an interest in the culture and you’re willing [to learn].”
Kalina Kornacki can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @KalinaKornacki.
