On the last day of school before April break, many students celebrate with water fights and cover their friends with cooling powder.
Traditionally, the New Year is a time for families to come together. Often, young people from rural areas move to the city to go to university, to work or to start their own family. During Khmer New Year, everyone travels back to their hometown, and families enjoy sharing big meals together.
Khmer New Year has been celebrated in Cambodia for a long time, even since before Cambodia was the country we know it as today. Brahman Hinduism used to be a prominent religion in the Ancient Ankgor Empire, and citizens of the empire followed the lunar calendar to celebrate the new year, usually in November or December.
However, the rulers of the Ancient Angkor Empire decided to switch from the lunar calendar to the solar calendar so that the new year would come in April. By changing the New Year, more people were able to celebrate, since fewer people had to work the farms in April.
The tradition of celebrating the Khmer New Year in April has continued for hundreds of years. While parades and firework displays constitute some of the more modern ways of celebrating, Cambodian people have celebrated the end of the harvest season and the arrival of a new year since the early Angkor Empire.
Yes, the tradition of celebrating a New Year in April goes back to the Angkor Empire in the 13th century. In Cambodia, April is usually the last month of the dry season, and it is also the hottest month.
