Khmer Calendar ប្រតិទិនចន្ទគតិខ្មែរ
Khmer lunar calendar, holidays, and Buddhist holy days
This is a Khmer calendar and cultural reference: lunar dates, public holidays, holy days, and written guides to festivals. It is not a government gazette.
Today
Monday, August 24, 2026 — Khmer Calendar ប្រតិទិនចន្ទគតិខ្មែរ
August 24, 2026 — Khmer lunar: 11 Koeut Srapon · Year of Horse · Srapon · B.E. 2570. Buddhist Era 2570, Sak era Atthaksak.
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Different from the Hindu calendar, the Khmer calendar consists of both a lunar calendar and a solar calendar. The solar is used more commonly than the lunar calendar.
Uposatha
An Uposatha (Pali: uposatha; Sanskrit: Upavasatha) day is a Buddhist day of observance, in existence since the Buddha's time (600 BCE), and still being kept today by Buddhist practitioners. The Buddha taught that the Uposatha day is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind," resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, both lay and ordained members of the sangha intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity. On these days, the lay followers make a conscious effort to keep the Five Precepts or (as the tradition suggests) the ten precepts. It is a day for practicing the Buddha's teachings and meditation.
Public holidays in Cambodia
Cambodia has numerous public holidays, including memorial holidays and religious holidays of Buddhist origin. The Khmer traditional calendar, known as ចន្ទគតិ Chântôkôtĕ, is a lunisolar calendar although the word itself means lunar calendar. While the calendar is based on the movement of the moon, calendar dates are also synchronized with the solar year to keep the seasons from drifting. Therefore, some public holidays are subject to change every year based on the lunar calendar.
Cambodian New Year
Cambodian New Year (or Khmer New Year; Khmer: បុណ្យចូលឆ្នាំខ្មែរ [ɓon coːl cʰnam kʰmae]), also known as Choul Chnam Thmey (Khmer: ចូលឆ្នាំថ្មី, UNGEGN: Chol Chhnăm Thmei, ALA-LC: Cūl Chnāṃ Thmī [coːl cʰnam tʰməj]; lit. 'Enter the New Year'), Moha Sangkran (Khmer: មហាសង្ក្រាន្ត, UNGEGN: Môha Sângkrant, ALA-LC: Mahā Sangkrānt [mɔhaː sɑŋkraːn]; lit. 'Great Sankranti') or Sangkran, is the traditional celebration of the solar new year in Cambodia. A three-day public holiday in the country, the observance begins on New Year's Day, which usually falls on 13 April or 14 April, which is the end of the harvesting season, when farmers enjoy the fruits of their labor before the rainy season begins. Khmers living abroad may choose to celebrate during a weekend rather than just specifically 13 April through 16 April. The Khmer New Year coincides with the traditional solar new year in several parts of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.
Pchum Ben
Pchum Ben (Khmer: ភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ, Phchŭm Bĕnd [pʰcom bən], lit. 'balled rice gathering' or Khmer: សែនដូនតា, Sen Don Ta, lit. 'offerings for ancestors' in the Khmer Surin and Khmer Krom communities) is a Cambodian 15-day religious festival, culminating in celebrations on the 15th day of the tenth month in the Khmer calendar, at the end of the Buddhist Lent, Vassa. The day is a time when many Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives of up to seven generations. Buddhist monks chant the suttas in Pali language overnight (continuously, without sleeping) in prelude to the gates of hell opening, an event that is presumed to occur once a year, and is linked to the cosmology of King Yama. During this period, the gates of hell are opened and spirits of the ancestors are presumed to be especially active. In order to liberate them, food-offerings are made to benefit them, some of them having the opportunity to end their period of purgation, whereas others are imagined to leave hell temporarily, to then return to endure more suffering; without much explanation, relatives who are not in hell (who are in heaven or other realms of existence) are also generally expected to benefit from the ceremonies. In temples adhering to canonical protocol, the offering of food itself is made from the laypeople to the (living) Buddhist monks, thus generating "merit" that indirectly benefits the dead. However, in many temples, this is either accompanied by or superseded by food offerings that are imagined to directly transfer from the living to the dead, such as rice-balls thrown through the air, or rice thrown into an empty field. Anthropologist Satoru Kobayashi observed that these two models of merit-offering to the dead are in competition in rural Cambodia, with some temples preferring the greater canonicity of the former model, and others embracing the popular (if unorthodox) assumption that mortals can "feed" ghosts with physical food. Pchum Bun is considered unique to Cambodia. However, there are merit-transference ceremonies that can be closely compared to it in Sri Lanka, such as offering food to the ghosts of the dead. In its broad outlines, it also resembles the Taiwanese Ghost Festival in its links to the notion of a calendrical opening of the gates of hell, King Yama, and so on.
Bon Om Touk
Bon Om Touk (Khmer: បុណ្យអុំទូក, Bŏn Om Tuk, lit. "Boat Paddling Festival"), also known as the Cambodian Water and Moon Festival, is celebrated in late October or early November, often corresponding with the lunar Mid-Autumn Festival. It marks the end of the monsoon season. The festivities are accompanied by dragon boat races, similar to those seen in the Lao Boun Suang Huea festival. The festival is celebrated over the span of three days and commemorates the end of the rainy season, as well as the change in flow of the Tonlé Sap River. The festival attracts several million people each year. Some activities that take place at the festival are boat races along the Sisowath Quay riverfront, fireworks, and evening concerts.
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