Photo: K / Pexels
Some festivals are content with a single day. Bon Om Touk takes three full days, turning the banks of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong into a vast open-air theatre. Every year, at the full moon of the month of Kadeuk (usually in November), millions of Cambodians converge on Phnom Penh and riverside towns for what remains, alongside Khmer New Year, one of the most eagerly awaited events on the national calendar. In 2026, the festival will take place from November 23 to 25.
A Festival Born of a Naval Victory
The origins of Bon Om Touk are said to date back to the 12th century, during the reign of King Jayavarman VII, the very king who built the Bayon and much of Angkor Thom. Legend has it that the boat races commemorate the Khmer navy's victory over the Cham, a coastal people who occupied Angkor in 1177. Eight centuries later, the long, brightly painted boats still race across the water, a living echo of that founding battle.
Three Days of Festivities on the Water
At the heart of the festival are the dragon boat races: hundreds of crews from across the country, sometimes with more than seventy rowers per boat, compete before an immense crowd packed along the riverbanks. But Bon Om Touk is about far more than competition.
- Day 1 opens with the first races and sets the festive mood along the entire riverfront.
- Day 2 brings a wave of competitions, with highly anticipated regional teams.
- Day 3, the night of the full moon, gathers the finals, the nighttime illuminations and the main religious rituals.
The Moon, Flattened Rice and Lanterns
Beyond the sport, Bon Om Touk is a deeply spiritual festival. At nightfall, Cambodians perform Sampeah Preah Khe, a salutation to the moon meant to give thanks for the year's harvests. This is followed by Ork Ambok, a delicious ritual in which people share flattened rice (ambok) mixed with banana, palm sugar and freshly grated coconut — a way of celebrating the abundance that follows the rainy season. As night falls, illuminated boats glide along the rivers while families set floating lanterns onto the water's surface, a gesture symbolizing the release of the past year's misfortunes and the welcoming of good fortune to come.
A Festival Deeply Tied to the Tonle Sap
Bon Om Touk also celebrates a unique natural phenomenon we explored in an earlier article on the Tonle Sap: the end of the rainy season is when this vast lake stops swelling and its flow reverses once again toward the Mekong. For generations of fishermen and rice farmers, this shift marks the start of a new fishing season, essential to the country's economy. Celebrating the waters at Bon Om Touk is therefore also a tribute to this nourishing lake that has shaped Cambodian life for centuries.
Experiencing the Festival from France
It's hard to bring Mekong boats all the way to our shops in Aix-en-Provence, Avignon or Cannes! But you can carry the spirit of the festival another way: by sharing a slowly steeped Cambodian tea, or cooking a dish seasoned with kroeung and Kampot pepper, while picturing, thousands of miles away, the lanterns drifting across the Tonle Sap. A lovely way to keep one foot in Cambodia, even far from its shores.