Cambodia celebrates King Sihamoni’s birthday annually with a public holiday on May 14.
Until 2020, the event was marked with a three-day public holiday. This has since been slashed to one, when Cambodia’s annual public holidays were cut from 28 to 22. To celebrate his birthday, King Sihomani gives offerings to monks and the poor, with celebrations taking place in the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh and fireworks display at the nearby Riverside in the evening.
King Sihomani
They like a good title in Cambodia and the king officially goes by His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Baromneath Norodom Sihamoni, the King of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The son of King Norodom Sihanouk, King Sihamoni was born on May 14, 1953 in the capital of Phnom Penh. He went on to be educated in the former Czech Republic and went on to become a cultural ambassador to Europe and a famed classical dance teacher.
In 2004, he took to the throne after his father abdicated due to bad health. Cambodia is an elected monarch – one of only a handful in the world – so a nine-member Royal Council of the Throne selected King Sihamoni as the next heir to the throne. According to Cambodian law, the king must be older than the age of 30 and be part of the royal family.
When Is King Sihamoni’s Birthday?
It is an annual public holiday on 14 May celebrating the birthday of King Norodom Sihamoni.