Well-Known Cambodian Festival for Travelers – Cambodia Private Tours

Welcome to Cambodia private tours! Mentioning Cambodia, people often think of pagodas and towers with unique architecture. However, few people know that this place is also famous for its extremely exciting festivals for travelers.
This article will guide you through the top 5 famous festivals in Cambodia that will blow your mind!

Come & See Famous Festivals In Cambodia

Vesak Bochea

Vesak Bochea is one of the most important holidays for Buddhists worldwide, including in Southeast Asian countries.
This holy day is when Buddhists show their heartfelt appreciation to the Buddha for his wisdom and teachings. His teachings help make decisions in life, and Buddhists honor Vesak Bochae Day to express their thoughts and hopes for a peaceful and happy life, which they express through particular actions such as offering food, money, and gifts to the old and disabled.

Vesak Bochae is a Buddhist holiday that includes activities such as practice, meditation, chanting, and Dharma speech. People can bring food, candles, and flowers to make offerings to the temple’s senior monks. People of all ages can come to greet the venerable monks and nuns with candles, incense sticks, and lotus flowers. The welcome ritual represents the Three Jewels’ fortunate blessing. Thousands of monks from mountain monasteries throughout the country are invited to make offerings to the four things and pray for blessings in their current and future lives. Vesak Bochea is usually celebrated on the full moon day of Vesākha according to the Buddhist calendar. The date of the Great Feast can vary by time zone from year to year, but it usually occurs in April or May.

Angkor Festival

The Angkor Songkran festival is held in Siem Reap, a famous tourist city with magnificent temples such as Angkor Vat and Angkor Thom. Every April, during Cambodia’s warmest month, the Angkor Songkran Festival will be held.
It signals the end of the dry season and the start of the chilly, rainy season. Folk games, traditional cultural acts, and Khmer foods are all part of the celebration.

Angkor Songkran festival is a festival to welcome the new year, an opportunity for family members to reunite, visit temples, rest after a year of hard work, and prepare for a new year. During the days of the Angkor Songkran festival, everyone flocked to the Angkor temple area. The area is brightly decorated with flashing lights, flowers, and slogan panels. Following the ceremony to welcome the new year and wish for a happy, peaceful, and rainy new year to all families, there are activities to introduce the culture and history of the country of Thap Pagoda.

Magha Puja Day/Meak Bochea

Do not forget the Meak Bochea Festival, one of Cambodia’s most important celebrations. Meak Bochea Festival is based on mythical occurrences that Cambodians still tell each other about. “According to folklore, Meak Bochea is the day Buddha prophesied and declared the day when he would acquire enlightenment and enter nirvana,” explains Royal College of Fine Arts ethnographer Ang Choulean. Meak Bochea Festival is held on the full moon day of the 3rd lunar month every year (according to the Cambodian calendar). For the solar calendar, it will fall around February.

In general, during this time, the Meak Bochea Buddhist festival will be held; in case you want to visit and witness the space of the festival, you should consult in advance about the festival organization time to get the most accurate date.
Meak Bochea festival is frequently celebrated in enormous temples, where Buddhists congregate to contemplate and pray in the colorful Buddhist atmosphere, reflecting on the life of all things around them. A unique feature of this celebration is that Buddhists will gather to offer food and participate in a candlelight procession to a huge temple at night.

Choul Chhnam Thmey

Chol Chnam Thmay Festival is the traditional New Year celebration in Cambodia. Chol Chnam Thmey festival lasts for three days and usually falls on April 13 (solar calendar). The time to celebrate Chol Chnam Thmey is also at the end of the harvest season. The farmers enjoy the fruit harvested after the crop and rest before the rainy season begins. The three days of the new year are called Maha Songkran (1st day), Wanabat (2nd day), and Tngay Leang Saka (3rd day).

According to the tradition of the people of Chua Thap country, on the first day of the new year, families go to the temple to offer rice and offerings to the monks, listen to the blessing chanting, and perform the Buddha bathing ceremony, and pray for good things. At the same time, hold a ceremony to pray for the souls of deceased grandparents and parents to express gratitude to those who have contributed to their birth. When the day of Wanabat comes, the richer people will do charity, giving rice and clothes… to the less fortunate, the poor, the house helpers, the homeless, and families’ income is too low. On Tngay Leang Saka, all Buddhists bathe Buddha statues as well as senior monks with fragrant water. This act has a symbolic meaning that water will be essential for all species. This is also considered a way to bring longevity, luck, happiness, and prosperity in life.

Royal Plowing Ceremony

The Royal Plowing Ceremony, known in Khmer as “Bon Chroat Preah Nongkoal,” is held publicly at the start of the plowing and cultivating season on June lunar month, which is normally in May in the western calendar. Symbolic oxen cultivate a ceremonial line and are then presented with dishes of food, which mostly reflect Cambodian products, during the religious practices, often led by the king.

The Royal Palace’s soothsayer forecasts the season based on the foods the oxen consume. Wine is also presented to the oxen; should they drink it, destruction lurks.

Conclusion

Cambodia private tours will be the best choice for those under stress to experience a magical holiday moment. The festivals will allow you to participate in exciting activities and learn Cambodian religious practices.

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