If you are in Cambodia on 23rd October - take it easy:
banks and offices (apart from tour companies) will be closed. The country is
celebrating Paris Peace Agreement Day. In some way this holiday marks an
anniversary of “New Cambodia” as we know it now. On 23rd October 1991 peace
documents signed in Paris (hence the name of the holiday) marked not only the
end of the Cambodian-Vietnamese war, but also the end of communistic era. Two
years later the country held its first Democratic elections.
In 2004 the government cancelled the holiday, and it was
brought back on the list of Cambodian National holidays only in 2013. Even
after the Peace Agreement was signed, remaining Khmer Rouge soldiers continued
to fight, and real peace came to Cambodia only at the end of 1990s.
Nevertheless for many citizens 23rd October is a very
important day when country’s political direction had changed, opening Cambodia
to the rest of the world, and making nowadays development and growing
prosperity possible.
10月23日はパリ和平協定締結記念日で銀行や会社が休日となります。
1991年10月23日新しいカンボジアの始まりとなり、カンボジアとベトナムの戦争終結とともに、共産主義の終わりとなり、2年後には民主選挙が行われました。
2004年には政府が休日を解消しましたが、2013年から再度休日に指定されました。
1990年代にはクメール·ルージュの兵士が戦い続けていましたが、今の繁栄と成長、開発の出発点となった大切な記念日です。