For the people of Cambodia, the water Festival (The pirogue Racing Festival) in Phnom Penh is the most magnificent traditional festival. For three days Phnom Penh citizens, foreign tourists and people from various provinces gather in the capital to celebrate the festival day and night.

The water festival has an extremely unique history. The water festival ceremony trained the army to prepare for battle. In the history, Khmer king always battled with enemies by sailing. So he prepared the water festival ceremony every year to choose a champion of sailing battle, as in Bayon Temple, Batteay Chhmar in the Preah Bat Jayvarman VII. We have seen lots of statues about sailing battles under the leadership of Jayvarman VII. The custom of this is to have from then up to the present. On the other hand the water is celebrated every year in November to honor the victory of Cambodian Naval forces in the reign of King Jayvarman VII, during the Angkor period in the 12th century. And this ceremony honors the military exercise of our navy force in the course of national defense and to express thanks to the 3 Buddhist symbols, Gods and all holy things which help us, especially with agriculture (rice fields) and serves as an opportunity to pray to our lord for the happiness and sufficient rain for rice cultivation.

Besides the regatta, the water festival also includes three other ceremonies: Illuminated float (Loy Pratip), Moon salutation (Sampeas Preah Khe) and the eating of pestle new special rice with banana or coconut juice (Ork Ambok). The ceremony lasts three days to provide opportunity for people to take part in competitions. Boats from near and far provinces take part in the races, the pirogue and the rowing boat. Each boat was manned by about thirty to forty men or women.