New Year's Day

13 April 2016

The Khmer New Year is a lunar-based celebration somewhat but the dates are usually April 13-15. This year it was intriguing because the government calendars listed the official holiday period as April 13-16, adding Saturday. No one I have talked to is quite sure why that happened but the theory is that it is to get around a recent government decree on not adding and extra day when a holiday falls on Saturday or Sunday.

 

Part 1   |   Part 2   |   Part 3   |   Part 4
Empy street at new year time

 Probably 2/3 or 3/4 of the population of Phnom Penh leaves the city at the time of Khmer New Year because the culture says everyone must go to her or his home village--and few people are from Phnom Penh. At the time of the Khmer Rouge, the Phnom Penh "new people" were among the first to be killed. Basically now the city empties for the holiday. This photo shows St 320 where families have put out Cambodian flags for the holidays. The only other sign of the holiday is all the cars and SUVs parked on this street. They aren't normally there. It's families visiting their relatives.

Go to Cambodian Culture page
Go to Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page