BOOKING GUIDE   CANCELLATION POLICY   FAQs   ABOUT US   SITE MAP   CONTACT US
Home » Event & Festival
Weather
 Weather:
Phnom Penh 95°F/36°C
Festival
King Sihanouk’s Birthday

Date: 30 Oct 2007 - 1 Nov 2007

This celebration revering the country’s influential king take place in late October or early November. People from all over the country come to the capital to join in celebrations and festivities held throughout the capital. Often the King’s birthday and Water festivals coincide resulting in a mammoths celebration in front of the Royal Palace and along the riverfront. Provincial villagers who would ordinarily have no reason to visit Phnom Penh will save up and make this occasion their sole visit to the capital.
   
Water festival

Date: 4 Nov 2007 - 6 Nov 2007

This vast festival is probably the most extravagant festival in the calendar. Over three days starting with the last full moon day in October or the beginning of November up to a million people from all walks of life from all over the country flock to the banks of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers in Phnom Penh to watch hundreds of brightly colored boats with over 50 paddlers battle it out for top honors. The boat racing dates back to ancient times marking the strength of the powerful Khmer marine forces during the Khmer empire. In the evening brightly decorated floats cruise along the river prior to and complimenting the fireworks displays. There is often a parallel festival at Angkor Wat and although it is smaller in scale it is just as impressive due to the backdrop of Angkor Wat.

The festival marks the changing of the flow of the Tonle Sap and is also seen as thanksgiving to the Mekong river for providing the country with fertile land and abundant fish. It is at this time when the river flow reverts to its normal down stream direction. The remarkable phenomenon that is the Tonle Sap sees the river flowing upstream during the rainy season and then change direction as the rains cease and the swollen Tonle sap lake empties back into the Mekong river leaving behind vast quantities of the fish.
   
Independence Day

Date: 9 Nov 2007

This important ceremony takes place at the site of the Independence Monument at the unction of Norodom and Sihanouk Boulevards. This ceremony celebrates Cambodia’s gaining of independence from France in 1953. All over the city flags adorn the shop fronts and bunting stretched over all the main thoroughfares as a sign of national pride.
   
Angkor Festival

Date: November or December

This festival is a showcase of performing arts with Angkor Wat as a backdrop. Performers from all over Asia attend this festival performing great epic stories from myths and legends, including the Ramayana, with their own national dance costumes and musical and rhythmic inter-pretations. King Sihanouk often attends when he is in residence in Siem Reap and other dignatories come to witness this wonderful spectacle.
   
Event