Khmer New Year

Khmer New Year, or Choul Chnam Thmey, is Cambodia’s traditional new year and one of the country’s great annual homecomings. It arrives at the end of the dry-season harvest, when families have historically had a rare moment to rest before the rains. The celebration brings together Buddhist devotion, household renewal and unrestrained social energy: people clean and decorate homes, visit pagodas, honour elders and make time for relatives who may have travelled long distances to be together.

The public holiday is deliberately broad enough to hold many versions of the festival. Phnom Penh programmes can feature dance, music, traditional games and water blessings, while villages and towns have their own rhythms of food, temple activity and visiting. The Ministry of Tourism’s Wat Phnom Sankranti programme, for example, has included a New Year Angel reception, Buddha parade, sand-hill rituals, classical performance and folk games. The exact festival dates are set annually, but the enduring idea is renewal shared in public.

The official 2026 calendar fixed Khmer New Year for April 14–16, with April 14 as Day 1. These are paid public holidays for workers as well as civil servants, while transport, hospitality and essential services use special rosters. The festival follows a solar New Year calculation rather than moving through the Gregorian year like Cambodia’s Buddhist lunar feasts. Travellers should distinguish the guaranteed three-day holiday from longer business shutdowns or annual-leave periods chosen by individual employers.