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Karen people ring in the year 2752
Police trying to ID stab wound victim
Celebrations include traditional music, song and dance Miranda Gathercole Times Reporter
Langley’s Karen people welcomed the year 2752, with a community party on Saturday, Jan. 12. The Karen calendar began 739 years before the Gregorian (or Christian) calendar, when the Karen people arrived in Burma (Myanmar) from Mongolia, explained Saw Hermon Lay, a counsellor with the Karen community, who emceed the event at Christian Life Assembly on the weekend, along with Naw Candace Marvel. This year, the Karen new year fell on Jan. 12, but the date varies from year to year, Lay explained, depending on the lunar cycle. Wearing traditional clothing, the Karen people performed music featuring Karen instruments and demonstrated dances from their homeland. The event also featured food traditionally prepared for such celebrations, including curried meat dishes, vegetables and rice. Between 300 and 400 people from across the Lower Mainland filled the gymnasium at Christian Life Assembly for the standing room-only event. Most of the guests were members of the Karen community, but many local Canadians came to celebrate, as well. The Karen women wore elaborate traditional dresses with fancy high heels, while the men donned sweaters and wraps. The celebration opened with a horn-blowing and poem, followed by a welcoming speech from Mahn Aung Mya Thein and City of Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender. Other addresses were given throughout the afternoon by Saw Joe and Naw Knyaw Simon, and by Bob Gabriel from Immigrant Services Society of B.C. Performances included the don dance, the bamboo dance and the Saw T’Kwah. During the don dance both men and women wore white and blue outfits and danced to traditional drums and instruments. It was followed by the bamboo dance, which is typically performed at weddings and funerals and involves several sticks of bamboo laid on the ground in a cross stitch pattern (resembling a setup for the game X’s and O’s). continued, PAGE 4
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Karen dancers performed a traditional Don Dance during the Karen New Year celebrations at Christian Life Assembly on Saturday.
Langley RCMP serious crimes division is still trying to properly identify the man who was found bleeding heavily from stab wounds in the 27000 block of Fraser Highway on Sunday morning. He is in his mid50s and believed to be from Langley, confirmed police spokesman Const. Craig van Herk. But what he was doing on the roadway or who his attackers were are still unknowns, he said. The man is still in serious condition in hospital. The stabbing took place at about 1 a.m. and the victim was found by paramedics outside the Alder Alley bowling alley, in the 27000 block of Fraser Highway. The victim was in such serious condition he was taken by air ambulance to hospital. Police were on the scene investigating and Fraser Highway was closed at that location well into the morning.
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