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.
This page: http://www.cockatoo.com/english/cambodia/cambodia_holidays.htm
