2024 Khmer New Year Celebrations – Maha Sankranta

The most important event on the Khmer calendar, the public holiday for the traditional Khmer New Year, or Bon Chol Chhnam Thmei/Sangkranta/Sankranti, will be Sat, Apr 13, 2024 – Tue, Apr 16, 2024. Much like the New Year festivals in any country, Cambodian New Year celebrations are the festival calendar’s highlight. The celebration also marks the end of the harvest season, the end of the dry season (September to April), and in turn, the beginning of the rainy season (May to October).

It’s a time for families to reunite as the whole nation comes to a stop for almost a week, and while the three to four days are synonymous with thousands joining together in the streets for water splashing, traditional practices are at the centre of the three days for every Khmer family.

Where to celebrate KNY?

Siem Reap and Phnom Penh are the two hot destinations although every provincial capital will have major celebrations while in regional areas, the main pagoda of the village will host traditional games and events. Paying respect to traditions, visiting the pagoda, concerts, endless food stalls, and water splashing everyone is all part of the mix.

Siem Reap Sangkranta

the traditional New Year festival “Siem Reap Sankranta” (or Sankran/Sankranti) will run for 4 days from 13 to 16 April 2024 at the Royal Palace Gardens and on both sides of the Siem Reap River from Road 6 bridge to the Wat Damnak bridge, and the Pub Street area. The event will feature a variety of entertainment, including Khmer folk games, river boating, food fairs, floating market visits and nightly concerts.

Siem Reap Khmer New Year Event Schedule (Translated)

12 April 2024

0800-3:30 Prayer Ceremony for Happiness
09:00-21:00 Food Exhibition Booth
14:00-21:00 Leisure Boating Program

13 April 2024

08:00-10:30 Offical Opening Ceremonу (Preah Ang Chen Preah Ang Chom Garden)
09:00-18:30 Cultural Heritage Village (Royal Gardens area)
09:00-21:00 Khmer Heritage Kite Exhibition and Training on How to Make Khmer Heritage Kite; Food Exhibition Booth (Royal Gardens area)
14:00-17:00 Traditional Khmer Folk Game Activities (Royal Gardens area)
1400-19:00 Cool Zone Refreshing Activities (Royal Gardens area) & Leisure boating program (Siem Reap River btwn Road 6 and Wat Bo Bridge)
1400-21:00 Hand Drum Music Band & Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
15:30-16:30 Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
10:00-21:00 Movies under the Starlight (Royal Gardens area)

14 April 2024

09:00-18:30 Cultural Heritage Village (Preah Ang Chen Preah Ang Chom Garden area)
09:00-21:00 Khmer Heritage Kite Exhibition, Lucky Haircut (Royal Gardens area)
09:00-21:00 Food Exhibition Booth
10:00-21:00 Leisure boating program (Siem Reap River btwn Road 6 and Wat Bo Bridge)
10:00-11:30 Hand Drum Music Band and Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
1400-19:00 Cool Zone Refreshing Activities (Royal Gardens area)
14:00-15:00 Traditional Tug of War Game (Royal Gardens area)
15:30-15:00 Boat Parade (Siem Reap River btwn Road 6 and Wat Bo Bridge)
15:30-16:30 Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
14:00-21:00 Hand Drum Music Band and Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
16:00-21:00 Concert
18:00-21:00 Movies under the Starlight (Royal Gardens area)
21:00-21:30 Drone Light Show Cambodia (Pub Street)

15 April

6.40-11:30 Siem Reap Sankranta Golf Tournament 2024 (Angkor Golf Resort)
9:00-18:30 Cultural Heritage Village Activities (Royal Gardens area)
10:00-21:00 Traditional Khmer Folk Game Activities; Food Exhibition (Royal Gardens area)
10:00-11:30 Hand Drum Music Band and Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
10:00-21:00 Leisure Boating Program (Siem Reap River btwn Road 6 and Wat Bo Bridge)
14:00-17:30 Traditional Khmer Folk Game Activities (Royal Gardens area)
14:00-19:00 Cool Zone Refreshing Activities (Royal Gardens area)
15:30-16:30 Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
14:00-21:00 Hand Drum Music Band and Traditional Dance Performance (Royal Gardens area)
17:00-21:00 Floating Lanterns & Prayers for Happiness (along the Siem Reap river)
21:00-21:00 Movies Screening under the Starlight (Royal Gardens area)
18:30-21:00 The Leather Puppet Show (Siem Reap river, east pier on Acha Sva St)

16 April

8:30-9:30 Hand Drum Music Band (Royal Gardens area)
9:30-11:30 Traditional Khmer Folk Game Activities (Royal Gardens area)
9:00-21:00 Food Exhibition Booth
9:00-18:30 Cultural Heritage Village Activities & Lucky Haircut Activities (Royal Gardens area)
9:00-21:00 Khmer Heritage Kite Exhibition (Royal Gardens area)
13:00-15:00 Bathing Buddha Ceremony (Royal Gardens area)
13:00-15:00 Cool Zone Refreshing Activities (Royal Gardens area)
16:00-21:00 Leisure Boating Program; Hand Drum Music Band; Concert
18:00-21:00 Movies Screening under the Starlight (Royal Gardens area)

Phnom Penh – Wat Phnom Sangkranti

in Phnom Penh, just like Siem Reap celebrations will run for 4 days from 13 to 16 April 2024. Events will center on Wat Phnom and extend down to the Independence Monument. Activities will begin with a ceremony to welcome the New Year Goddess at 10.17 pm on April 13th. Khmer folk games will be at the center of activities along with cultural exhibitions, a Buddha statue parade, and the traditional Buddha bathing ceremony.

Cambodian New Year Traditions

For Khmer, leading up to the New Year celebration is a busy time of cleaning the house and surroundings, decorating and preparing new clothes, preparing food and offerings for the deities, etc., all ready for the first day. The food offerings will differ depending on the diety and activities may vary from region to region but a basic overview of the traditional activity is

Day 1 – Maha Sankran or Great Sankranti, on this day, food is given to the monks at the pagoda and you may also see people making “stupas” with sand near the temple or pagoda in a quincunx pattern, one at the center surrounded by four others.

Day 2: Van Bot, Giving new clothes to the children, giving gifts/money to parents and grandparents, giving donations to the poor. Once again visiting the sand stupas to pray.

Day 3: Leung Sakk, In the morning, the monks perform a ceremony at the sand stupas and in the evening, the monks fetch water to wash over the Buddha statues and elders.

At the Royal Palace, a special ceremony is also held including lighting a candle on the first day which is later extinguished on the last day followed by monks throwing holy water on the palace grounds to clear away any bad spirit of the old year.

The New Year Goddess – seven deities of the Khmer New Year

Each year the deity changes which also determines which flowers, foods and gifts to offer on her arrival prior to the new year. The deities are the seven daughters of Kabel Mahaprabhu according to ancient folklore and relate to days of the week. Each of them also rides upon a different animal and is also associated with their own color.

Kralan – the snack of KNY

Kralan is a popular dish all year round being sticky rice cooked inside bamboo over an open flame. During the new year, it’s the sweeter coconut version that you’ll find in abundance.

KNY in Ancient Times

Zhao Daguan’s records of KNY

As you probably know, Zhao Daguan was a Chinese diplomat of the Yuan dynasty of China who visited Angkor in 1296 AD, whilst the Khmer Empire was under the rule of King Indravarman III, and left behind the only surviving written record of Cambodia by an outsider. He describes New Year celebrations held inside Angkor Thom with stages built for the people that are lit with lanterns and stupas erected from wood that are topped with fireworks that would light up the sky for miles around. He recorded the festival as lasting for 14 days! (Ref: A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People).

Ancient inscriptions mentioning the new year and “Sankranta”

The word Songkran (Sangkran etc), as you’d expect, has its roots in ancient Khmer culture connecting back to ancient Hindu and Buddhist cultures. Songkran originates from the Sanskrit word Sankranti referring to the solar passage and changing of the zodiac. Sankranti is a monthly affair while the marking of the new year was referred to as Maha Sankranti or great Sankranti.

Mentions of Sankranta can be found in several ancient inscriptions and here are some examples

K. 195 – Phnom Sandak IC VI, p. 247
K. 256 – Prasat Kok Po – on a doorframe there is an inscription mentioning Sankrantapada which George Coedes considers may be related to Sankranti, and New Year celebrations – dated to 979-1004 AD
K. 290 – Tep Pranam IC III, p. 231
K. 291 – Phimeanakas IC III, p. 199
K. 850 – Phnom Bayang IC I, p. 268
K. 989 – Prasat Beng IC VII, p. 164
K.1272 – Prasat Phnom Sruoch – Mentions the provision of rice for the new year (sankranta). (Chevance, 2014)

The Khmer are not alone in celebrating the new year at this time, many countries in South Asia like Thailand, Bangladesh, parts of southern China, parts of India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka also have celebrations at this time.

Let’s not forget, Cambodia also has strong cultural and migratory connections with Vietnam and China also celebrating the Lunar New Year Festival/Chinese New Year in late January. During the time of French rule, they also adopted the Gregorian calendar and celebrated that new year too! Cambodia = More of everything good!

Angkor Sankranta 2023 Highlights

From 2013 to 2023, the most popular place to be for the new year celebrations was the Angkor Sangkranta event (also Angkor Sangkran/Sangkranti; Khmer: ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍អង្គរសង្ក្រាន្), held in Siem Reap aimed at promoting Khmer New Year traditions. It was a grand multi-day event with activities held around Angkor Wat and also along the beautiful river in the city center.

03/04/23 – Some pics of preparations at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in the lead-up to Angkor Sankranta 2023