1. The Water Festival «BOM Om Tuk»
By Shubina Diana
Class 9b
Pervomaisk Secondary School Tambov Region
2013

2. The Water festival is the most important festival in the Khmer calendar.
It takes place at the beginning or in the middle of November and lasts during three days This is one of the most important events in Cambodia.

3. Every year thousands of people around the world come to Phnom Penh to the shores of rivers the Mekong and the Tonlesap to admire this extravagant event or participate in a traditional regatta.
For the residents of
Cambodia this festival
is not only a bright
show, the holiday
signifies the beginning
of the fishing season.

4. The regatta includes several hundred boats,
the length of which is about 20 meters.
Boats are brightly coloured, these colours correspond to the colours of 21 provinces in Cambodia. The festival would return all the participants and guests of the Khmer days,
when Cambodia was a majestic water army Empire.

5. The Water festival «BOM Om Tuk» or, as it is called, the Feast of turning water, means the end of the rainy season. At this time, residents and guests of Cambodia become witnesses of a unique event: the Tonlesap river reverses its direction of the flow.

6. The Water festival is accompanied by a variety of mass festivals
The Water festival is accompanied by a variety of mass festivals. The festival in Phnom Penh gathers more than half of the population of Cambodia.