🌑 New moon🌓 Quarter moon🌕 Full moon🪷 Buddhist observance🏯 Cambodian holiday🚣 Water Festival
A beautiful daily reference for Cambodia’s traditional lunar calendar, moon days, Buddhist observances, and national celebrations.
Cambodia uses two calendars side by side. Everyday life runs on the Gregorian calendar, while Buddhist holy days, Pchum Ben, the Water Festival, Kathen and many family occasions follow the Khmer lunar calendar. This page shows both at once: tap any day to see its Khmer lunar date, its animal year, its Sak and its Buddhist Era year.
Khmer lunar dates are not numbered 1 to 30. Each month follows one cycle of the moon, about 29½ days, so months alternate between 29 and 30 days, and each month has two halves. In the waxing half the days run from 1 Kaet to 15 Kaet, and 15 Kaet is the full-moon day. In the waning half they run from 1 Roach to 14 Roach in a 29-day month, or to 15 Roach in a 30-day month; the last day is the dark-moon day. So "8 Roach, month of Phatrabot" means the eighth day of the waning half of Phatrabot.
In their traditional order: Migasir, Boss, Meak, Phalkun, Chet, Pisak, Jesth, Asadh, Srap, Phatrabot, Assoch and Kadeuk. Romanized spellings vary, so you may see the same month written in slightly different ways.
Twelve moons make only about 354 days, eleven days short of a solar year. To keep the festivals in their seasons, some years get one extra day (Chantreathimeas, 355 days, when Jesth has 30 days instead of 29) and some get a whole extra month (Athikameas, 384 days, when Asadh is repeated as Pathamasadh and Tutiyasadh). 2026 is a leap-month year, which is why Pchum Ben came late this year. Our guide to Khmer leap months explains how the rules work.
Four days in each lunar month are Thngai Sil, Buddhist precept days: 8 Kaet, the full moon on 15 Kaet, 8 Roach and the last waning day. The 🪷 mark on the calendar shows Buddhist observances; see Cambodian Buddhist holy days for what each one means.
A full Khmer date often ends with a year name such as "Year of the Horse, Atthasak, B.E. 2570". Each part changes on a different day: the animal changes at Moha Songkran, the start of Khmer New Year in mid-April; the Sak moves up by one on Loeng Sak, the last day of Khmer New Year; and the Buddhist Era year changes the day after Visak Bochea. That is why the Khmer animal year starts in April, not at Chinese New Year. Read more in Khmer animal year and Sak and when the animal year really changes.
Lunar dates come from the traditional Khmer calendar rules, using the open-source momentkh library that our Zodiac Checker also uses; they are calculated, not estimated by hand. The calendar's full-moon day can differ by a day from an astronomy app, because the Khmer calendar follows its own rules rather than nightly observation. Public holidays are announced each year by the Royal Government of Cambodia, so check the official announcement before you plan travel. To find your own lunar birth date, see Khmer lunar calendar and your birth date or use the Zodiac Checker.
Guides to every part of the calendar: holy days, holidays, moon days, years and leap months.