Ok Om Bok Festival - Ngo boat racing in Soc Trang

Ok Om Bok – Ngo boat racing in Soc Trang today has become a festival with profound humanistic meaning in the spiritual life of the Khmer people in the South and has become a common cultural activity of the community in the region, contributing to preserving and promoting traditional cultural identity and consolidating and strengthening the great national unity bloc...

We invite you to learn about this festival of the Khmer people in the South through the photo series "Ngo boat racing festival - Soc Trang" by author Duong Tran Hai. The Ngo boat racing festival on this occasion has the meaning of sending off and thanking the Water God after a year of giving a bountiful harvest. The Ngo boat racing competition is very popular and demonstrates community solidarity with the participation of many people. The photo series was submitted by the author to the Photo and Video Contest of Happy Vietnam - Happy Vietnam, organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The Ok Om Bok Festival - Ngo Boat Race of the Khmer people is also the pride of the Southwest community when it was recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2015. The Ok Om Bok Festival - Ngo Boat Race of Soc Trang province has set a Vietnamese record since 2005 with the largest number of boats and athletes participating. In even-numbered years, the Ok Om Bok Festival - Ngo Boat Race of Soc Trang province is organized at the regional level, or in combination with the Cultural, Sports and Tourism Festival of the Southern Khmer people.

After the referee's starting whistle, amidst loud cheers, the athletes tried their best to quickly paddle their rafts into the water, making their team's Ngo boat glide quickly on the racetrack, breaking away to the finish line in a spectacular way.

Right from the first matches of the qualifying round, the athletes of the male and female boat teams showed their best fighting spirit, giving their all to compete, giving the audience thrilling and beautiful performances.

For the Khmer people in the South, the Ngo boat racing custom is not only a traditional sport but also contains many sacred meanings.

It can be said that this is an opportunity for ethnic minorities in general and Khmer people in the Southwest region in particular to express their feelings and trust in the Party and State, thereby raising their sense of responsibility to preserve, conserve and promote fine cultural traditions, improve the spiritual life of the people, contribute to consolidating and strengthening the strength of the great national unity bloc, and join hands to build the homeland and country to become more and more prosperous and happy.

Vietnam.vn