Public holidays that fall on Saturdays and Sundays are forwarded to the next Monday.

Meak Bochea Day

This public holiday corresponds to the Buddhist ceremony held during the full moon of the month of Meak Bochea in commemoration of the spontaneous gathering of the monks to listen to the buddha's preaching.

Khmer New Year (Bonn Chaul Chhnam)

This public holiday corresponds to the Cambodian New Year which spans three days after the end of harvest. It's a time of merriment where Cambodian clean their homes, make offerings and play traditional games such as Boh Angkunh and Chhoal Chhoung.

Royal Plough Ceremony (Bonn Chroat Preah Nongkoal)

This public holiday corresponds to the start the planting season. It is performed by a man (King of Meakh) who leads the yoke and plough, and a woman (Queen Me Hour) who sows seeds. The sacred cows are led to silver trays containing rice, corn and other foods. Based on their choice, predictions are made for the coming year. The ceremony, and subsequent public holiday, were reintroduced by former king Norodom Sihanouk after his return from exile in 1993 as part of an effort to return Cambodia to its cultural history after years of civil war and the destruction of so many ancient traditions under the brutal 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge regime.

Bonn Phchum Ben

This public holiday corresponds to a celebration where people bring offerings to the Monks, and spend a day of worship at the pagoda.

Water and Moon Festival (Bonn Om Touk)

This public holiday corresponds to a three-day festival not only marks the reversing of the current in the Tonle Sap river but ushers in the fishing season as well. The highlight of this event is the boat race in which more than 200 teams compete over three days for the top prize. As night falls, fireworks light the sky and a lighted flotilla of boats sail under the full moon.

Chinese New Year is only celebrated by the Chinese and Vietnamese communities and is not one of the nationally observed public holidays in Cambodia.

Disclaimer

Public holidays in Cambodia that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck).

While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2007 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Cambodia, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. Some of the bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Cambodia are based on calendars whose determination is inherently approximate, as described in the footnotes below, which we strongly urge you to read. In addition, in many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by the local authorities and you are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Cambodia, before planning any trip to Cambodia. Finally, the dates on this page were calculated using recurrence rules that were found to match available data on July 25, 2007; they are neither official announcements for the future, nor historical record of the past.