APAD 257: Meak Bochea

One week ago today, Cambodia celebrated the Buddhist holy day called Meak Bochea. This is a little known Buddhist holiday, but for the devout Buddhists, it is a key holiday in the Buddhist calendar.

Falling approximately three months before the widely celebrated Visaka Bochea, informally known as Buddha’s Birthday, Meak Bochea commemorates they day that the spiritual leader Gautam Buddha announced his future; the death and accompanying nirvana into which he would enter. (Source)

Meak Bochea is a public holiday in Cambodia and all government offices and even schools are closed to allow people to go to their wats (temples) and offer food to the monks and pray.