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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Cambodia

The list of Cambodia bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

 © 1989-2008 Alter Ego Services

22 Sep 2008 (Cambodia's e-Gov Website) Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hun Sen, signed today the Royal Government's sub-decree Nº 143, establishing Cambodia's list of official public holidays for 2009. • 14 May 2008 (Phnom Penh Post + Bangkok Post) The government of Cambodia is considering a new national holiday on June 15 to mark the 1962 anniversary of the International Court in The Hague deciding that the temple of Preah Vihear lies within Cambodian territory. • 16 Jun 2007 (La Prensa Latina) Elections for the National Assembly will occur on Sunday, July 28, 2008. • 15 Sep 2005 (Royal Government of Cambodia Website) Cambodia has released it 2006 list of official public holidays. As our local contacts had reported, the list, for the first time, does not include the October 23 public holiday commemorating the 1991 Paris Peace Accords. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Cambodia public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: Official public holidays in Cambodia are regulated by the Kram (Labour Code) of March 13, 1997. The actual dates are set by Prakas (decrees) every year, such as the Cambodian Royal Government's sub-degree N° 93, signed on August 03, 2007 by Prime Minister Hun Sen. • Weekend Public Holidays: Article 162 of the Labour Code specifies that public holidays that occur on a Sunday are moved to the following Sunday. But the Ministry of Foreign affairs on its website asserts that public holidays that occur on a Saturday or Sunday are moved to the following 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. • Paris Peace Agreement Public Holiday (October 23): this public holiday commemorating the 1991 Paris peace agreement, was removed from the list of public holidays, beginning in 2006. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: National Bank of Cambodia (Cambodia central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Religion of Specific Business Contacts : Some of the business contacts that you may be trying to meet in Cambodia, may belong to a religious group that is not common in Cambodia, and therefore which is not included in the above list of public holidays or bank holidays. To be safe, you should also verify that no major religious holidays coincides with any planned business trip to Cambodia. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Religious Holidays : 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). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Solar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, equinoxes, solstices, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict solar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Cambodia are based on the geographical location of Phnom Penh (latitude 11,6°N, longitude 104,9°E, GMT+7,0 hours, no summer time rules). Note that many countries in South-East Asia are progressively changing the recurrence rule of some of their lunar/solar holidays to rules based on fixed dates of the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Therefore, while the dates predicted above for 2009 and beyond are currently technically correct, the rules of these holidays may change in the next few years. For more details on lunar and solar holidays, see the Lunisolar Footnotes.

South-East Asian Holidays : The rules used to predict South-East Asian public holidays in Cambodia are based on the models described in the book "The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East Asia", by J.C. Eade, published as part of the "Handbuch der Orientalistik" series. Our sincere thanks to Burghart Hoffrichter for his help in making sense of these calendrical systems.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Cambodia, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Cambodia, before planning any trip to Cambodia. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.