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Travel
Information
Celebrations
and Holidays
January
or February - Chinese and Vietnamese New Year; it
is celebrated principally by the Chinese and Vietnamese
minorities, but cause for many shops to be closed. The
celebration is flexible in date as it is determined
by the lunar calendar.
January
- Commemoration Day of the last sermon of the Buddha;
date determined by the lunar calendar.
January
7 - national holiday in commemoration of the fall
of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
March
8 - Women's Day; national holiday with parades.
April
- Chaul Chhnam; traditional Cambodian New Year, equalling
Songkran in Thailand; the celebrations last for three
days during which Cambodians douse each other liberally
with water; exact date determined by the lunar calendar.
April
- Visak Bauchea; commemoration of the birth and
the first sermon of the Buddha; exact date determined
by the lunar calendar.
April
17 - Independence Day; national holiday in commemoration
of the fall of the Lon Nol dictatorship on April 17,
1975.
May
1- Labour Day
June
19 - Memorial Day of the founding of the revolutionary
forces of Cambodia in 1951; parades in Phnom Penh.
June
28 - Memorial Day of the founding of the Revolutionary
People's Party of Cambodia in 1951; parades and celebrations
in Phnom Penh.
July
- beginning of the Buddhist Lent; the exact date depends
on the lunar calendar. The day is preferred by Cambodian
and Buddhist men of neighbouring countries for becoming
monks, mostly on a temporary basis.
September
- the day of the final celebrations of the Buddhist
Lent; exact date determined by the lunar calendar.
September
- Prachum Ben; a kind of Cambodian All-Saints-Day in
commemoration of the dead and ancestors; exact date
determined by the lunar calendar.
October
and November - Water Festival; this festival celebrates
the turn of the current of the Tonle Sap river. The
Tonle Sap river connects lake Tonle Sap with the Mekong.
For most of the time the river flows from lake Tonle
Sap into the Mekong. However, during the rainy season
from about June to October the Mekong carries a high
water level, and in response the Tonle Sap river flows
in reverse direction, from the Mekong back into lake
Tonle Sap. This causes lake Tonle Sap to swell to more
than twice its regular size. At the end of the rainy
season, when the water level of the Mekong drops again,
the current reverts and the water added to lake Tonle
Sap during the rainy season flows back into the Mekong.
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