Jenny Boriboun, 2, toddles around the Laotian New Year festival, in Smithfield, while her father, Sith Boriboun, of Danielson, Conn., tries to take her photo.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Frieda Squires

SMITHFIELD — As New Englanders headed outdoors yesterday to celebrate the sun god’s late arrival this spring, two Southeast Asian communities spent the day honoring their ancestors at the dawning of their New Year.

At daylong gatherings in Smithfield and Cranston, they mixed solemn chanting and joyous dancing, processions and beauty pageants, ritual offerings and dining. The activity wove around the central themes of honor and appreciation of the family.

With prayers overseen by Buddhist monks, participants offered traditional gifts of money, clothes, food, incense, tea and fruit to honor ancestors and parents.

“We’re very proud that the young children come and recognize their tradition and hold on to it,” said James Pongsa, vice president of the Laotian Community Center. “This is something we need to carry on.”

Pongsa talked as he walked on the grounds of the Watlao Buddhovath of Rhode Island, a Laotian temple on a 13-acre plot along Lime Rock Road.

At the front of the grounds, a monk oversaw prayers in a carpeted community room. Outside, people milled about tables where women handed out pamphlets on various health and social topics. Cars arrived in a regular stream, disgorging chattering children and family members at the head of a long gravel parking lot.

At the far end of the lot, a semicircle of white canopies ringed a wide covered stage.

Under the canopies, venders sold traditional foods — spicy barbecued chicken marinated in curry, bamboo shoots stuffed with sticky rice, papaya salad, mango and pork wrapped in banana leaves. Others sold knickknacks and small household accessories — wooden jewelry boxes and incense holders, carved figurines and the like. Some sold clothing, traditional Lao garb mixed in with American-style casual wear.

On the stage, seven young women, dressed in colorful, beaded silk gowns walked and danced their way through the annual “Nang Songkarn” pageant.

Laotian music wafted over it all.

The springtime New Year event is the largest of the four or five events the community center will host during the year, Pongsa said.

“We make it easy for kids to [come] today,” he said. “The event is popular.”

Timchi Khamdy, 19, of Lowell, Mass., came to participate in the pageant.

“I wanted to learn more about my culture,” said the Bay State College student during a break in the event.

She wore a beaded gown her father had brought back from a recent vacation in Laos.

“It’s very hot,” she said of the nearly floor-length dress.

Activities, including a parade set for 1 p.m., continue today at the Laotian temple in Smithfield.

Also yesterday, Cambodians gathered at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet, in Cranston, to welcome the Cambodian New Year. The celebration yesterday included a Khmer Buddhist traditional ceremony, the ritual building of a sacred sand mountain, traditional games and karaoke.

About 100 people had gathered at the banquet hall by late morning to begin the day with Buddhist prayers and chants. Hundreds of other Cambodians arrived throughout the day as the crowd waxed and waned during the event, which culminated last night with a fashion show. Up to 800 people were expected to attend the event sponsored by the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island.

Events in the Cambodian community marking the Year of the Pig began last weekend at Dhamagosnaram Buddhist Temple of Rhode Island, in Cranston.

pgrimald@projo.com