Meak Bochea Day in Cambodia In Cambodia, Meak Bochea Day is an important religious festival. It is observed on the full moon in the third month of the Khmer calendar, which generally lands in later February or early March. Meak Bochea Day commemorates the final sermon given by Buddha, in which he summarized the “heart of Buddhism” in three principles: ceasing from all evil, doing only what is good, and cleansing the mind. The group that assembled that day, around 2,500 years ago now, to hear him preach are sometimes called the “Fourfold Assembly” because of four factors that were in place: the 1,250 listeners were all “enlightened ones,” they were all ordained by Buddha himself, they came, according to the tradition, without being summoned, and it was a full moon in the month of Magha. It is also said that, on this day, Buddha correctly predicted the day of his own death, which occurred three months later. The day of his death was also the day of his birth and of his p...