Festival of the Reversing Current

Reversing Current, Festival of the (Water Festival; Bonn Om Tuk)

Late October or November

The Festival of the Reversing Current is a festival and national holiday to celebrate a natural phenomenon in Cambodia. Tonle Sap, a lake, is connected to the Mekong River by the Tonle Sap River, which normally flows south from the lake. But during the rainy season, from mid-May to mid-October, the flood-swollen Mekong backs up and flows backward through the Tonle Sap River into the lake. The depth of the lake jumps from seven feet to 35 feet, and the total surface quadruples. The normal southward flow returns when the dry season starts. Because of the phenomenon, the Tonle Sap lake is an extremely rich source of freshwater fish.
The festival, held at the time when the Tonle Sap returns to its normal direction, is a time of fireworks, merrymaking and races of pirogues, or long canoes, at Phnom Penh.

CONTACTS:
Phnom Penh Municipality
3 Quai Sisovath
Phnom Penh, 12206 Cambodia
855-23-723-949; fax: 855-23-466-043
www.phnompenh.gov.kh/english/introduction.h

SOURCES:
Revolution Days See under individual countries