“Khmer New Year” is a 3-day festival starting around the 13th or
14th of April (depending on leap years) to celebrate the New Year.
Everyone is out on the streets wishing each other and their families
success, peace and happiness. Much earlier, during Angkor times, the
New Year was celebrated 4 months earlier on the 1st day of the first
lunar month. This was abandoned after Angkor, as a solar calendar was
adopted and gained popularity.
The main reason for the change was the end of the dry season, when the
peasants finished their work in the fields and the harvest had been put
away safely before the start of the rainy season, and people had more
time to celebrate. Therefore, one of the kings decided to change the New
Year festival to the month of April and to follow a solar calendar.
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