The Kingdom of Cambodia is known as one of the most sacred lands in Southeast Asia. This place not only stands out with the majestic Angkor complex but also stands out with many unique festivals, including Cambodian New Year. If you have the opportunity to travel to Cambodia during the festival, you will have the opportunity to experience the extremely unique culture of the people here. And surely everyone will be “captured” to fully experience the Khmer New Year holidays in this land of pagodas and towers.
Cambodian Khmer New Year- The biggest New Year days in the land of pagodas and towers
Cambodian New Year is the biggest traditional holiday of the year in the land of sacred temples and towers. Coming to the big festival of the Cambodian people, visitors will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a bustling, cozy but also extremely unique atmosphere with activities imbued with the identity of the people here. If you have the opportunity to set foot in Cambodia during the Khmer New Year, you should definitely not miss major festivals such as:
Cambodian traditional New Year
Cambodian traditional New Year is also known as Chol Chnam Thmay or Chaul Chnam Thmay. This is one of the major festivals celebrating the new year according to the traditional calendar of the Khmer people. Besides Cambodia, this is also a holiday in many other countries such as Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Siri Lanka.
The origin of this holiday stems from people’s belief in a god from heaven sent down to take care of people’s lives during the year. Therefore, every year this day is designated as a traditional festival and new year for all Cambodians. During this special occasion, fun activities such as lighting sky lanterns, lighting lanterns, lighting fires, etc. are performed everywhere.
The time to celebrate Cambodia’s traditional New Year is around the middle of April (beginning of Chet month in the Khmer Buddhist calendar – April 13 – 15 of the solar calendar). This holiday will last for 3 days in regular years and 4 days in leap years. Each Khmer New Year holiday has a different name:
– First day: Maha Songkran (Chôl sangkran thmay):
On the first day of Cambodian New Year, people often bring offerings such as incense, lights, and fruits to the temple to hold the grand calendar procession, Maha Songkran.
On Maha Songkran day, the grand calendar procession will take place. On this day, every day, take a bath, wear new clothes and bring offerings, and go to the temple at the chosen auspicious time (regardless of morning or afternoon).
– Day two: Wanabat (Wonbof):
In the afternoon, the sand mountain building ceremony is conducted to find good fortune. People build many small mountains of sand in eight directions, building a sand mountain in the center to pray.
Wanabat day is the day of offering rice and building sand mountains. Every family in Cambodia will make rice to offer to monks and nuns at the temple in the morning or noon. This rice offering ceremony will be chanted by monks to give thanks to those who make and bring food to the temple.
– The third day is named: Tngai Laeung Saka (Long sak):
After the Buddha bathing ceremony, people bathe the elderly monks and take the monks to the cemetery to pray for the souls of the deceased. Finally, everyone goes home to bathe the Buddha statue at home, make a blessing for their grandparents and parents to ask forgiveness for the shortcomings of the old year.
Different from the first two days of Khmer New Year, the third day called Tngai Laeung Saka is the day of bathing Buddha statues and bathing monks. In the morning, everyone will offer rice to the monks at the temple, who will listen to the sermon. In the afternoon, people burn incense, offer incense offerings, and offer fragrant water to participate in the Buddha bathing festival to wash away the misfortunes of the old year and bring more good things in the new year.
During these days, people often visit each other, wish them fortune, health, prosperity and participate in fun activities during Khmer New Year. All Cambodians will dress beautifully, clean and repair their homes to welcome the new year. All preparations are done thoroughly similar to the traditional Vietnamese Tet holiday.
However, the time to celebrate New Year’s Eve during the traditional Khmer New Year holiday of Cambodian people is different from that of Vietnamese people. They do not stipulate that New Year’s Eve is on the night of the 30th of the New Year like Vietnamese people, but New Year’s Eve can be in the morning, noon, afternoon, and evening at different times depending on the monks at the temple to see the good times and report back.
If you have the opportunity to come to Cambodia during the Khmer people’s traditional New Year, you will definitely have extremely interesting experiences. This is also an opportunity for you to experience the unique culture of the Cambodian people, immersing yourself in the common joy of this beautiful country.
Water festival in Cambodia
Besides the three very special traditional New Year days in Cambodia, visitors also have the opportunity to participate in one of the biggest festivals of the year in this land of pagodas and towers, which is the water festival. This festival not only makes tourists from all over eagerly wait, but even the Cambodian people themselves also look forward to this festival.
The time of the water festival coincides with the time of Cambodia’s traditional New Year, which is April 13 – 15 of the solar calendar. People will conduct a water festival along with the Khmer New Year’s Day Chol Chnam Thmay. This festival has its own unique feature, instead of wishing each other good luck, people will splash water on each other to hope for the best things to come to everyone.
During the water festival, Cambodians will bring fresh flowers and offerings to the pagoda to listen to Buddhist teachings and perform traditional rituals here. In particular, during these days the streets are decorated with beautiful fresh flowers, people enjoy traditional Khmer dishes together with traditional palm wine. Most tourists traveling to Cambodia during this holiday have extremely interesting experiences to the point of “forgetting the way home”.
Bon Om Touk boat racing festival in Cambodia
Referring to the most unique festivals in the land of pagodas and towers, it would be a mistake to ignore the most famous Bon Om Touk boat racing festival here. This is a traditional Khmer festival to demonstrate the talent, agility, perseverance, national pride, solidarity, patriotism,… of the people here.
Bon Om Touk Water Festival usually takes place from November 21 – 23 every year at Tonle Sap Lake in Phnom Penh city. If you want to participate in this major Khmer holiday, you should pay attention to arranging a reasonable schedule and book a hotel early to ensure your trip is not interrupted or off schedule.
If you have the opportunity to experience Cambodian New Year, enjoy the vibrant festive atmosphere and unique customs here. From colorful folk dance performances, traditional culinary flavors, to festivals filled with laughter, all will bring you memorable memories. And don’t forget, a vacation at Ha Tien Vegas is the ideal stopover, where you can rest and continue to explore the brilliant culture of the country of temples and towers. Let your journey become more complete with unforgettable moments in Cambodia!
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Having just participated in the Cambodian traditional Khmer New Year festival, you can take advantage of visiting other interesting places in Cambodia such as Kampot, Kep and stay overnight at Ha Tien Vegas right next to Ha Tien – Kampong Trach border gate and continue your journey to explore Cambodia or Kampot the next day.
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