Preserve and promote the unique culture in Ok Om Bok Festival - Ngo boat racing

Every year, every mid-October of the lunar calendar is Khmer Soc Trang people in particular and Khmer people in the South in general are busy in the festival season of Ok Om Bok - Ngo Boat Race. This is one of the 3 biggest festivals of the Khmer people in the year together with the Choch Chnam Tet and Sene Dolta.
Unique culture
Soc Trang is the most populous province in the country with more than 400,000 people, accounting for nearly 31% of the provincial population. The Khmer here consider the Moon a god to regulate the crops of the year. Therefore, in the middle of October every lunar year, it is also the last days of the rainy season and is the time to harvest crops of all kinds, including sticky rice as the earliest, they use sticky rice to make nuggets together. other crops to make offerings to the Moon.

Legend has it that the Ok Om Bok festival - Ngo boat racing of Khmer people has a long history. The elderly Khmer recounted that the festival was meant to send water to the river because the time to organize the festival at the end of the year, the rainfall has decreased, the water level in the fields, ponds, lakes, and rivers began to fall. down; Farmers started to harvest crops and farm produce. In addition, the Khmer people have inherited both the Brahmanical and Buddhist civilizations, so they have the ritual of worshiping the moon during the Ok Om Bok festival - Khmer boat racing is also called Moon worshiping ceremony or "Putting rice nuggets".

Rituals are conducted on the evening of October 15 of the lunar calendar, when the moon rises, and people gather at pagodas or courtyards for ceremonies. They put two bamboo trees and use coconut leaves to form the arch, on the gate with a string of betel nuts consisting of 12 leaves representing 12 months of the year and a bunch of areca with 7 fruits split into two shells like the symbolic bee. for 7 days a week. Under the porch, there is a table displaying offerings made by farmers such as: coconut, banana, sweet potato, taro, printed cake and flat rice.

When the offering was finished, the people sat and folded their hands facing the moon to celebrate the ceremony. When the rising moon shines, people start burning incense, lights and invite an elderly, the most prestigious in phum, squirrel or family to host. The host of the ceremony prayed to express the gratitude of the people to the moon, to ask for the moon to receive the gifts and to give everyone good health, good harvest ... After that, everyone gathered together to collect the items. In order to enjoy the blessing, the children have fun and sing and dance until late at night.

Along with the Ok Om Bok ceremony, the Ngo Boat Racing is also an activity that Khmer people look forward to these days. A month before the festival, the pagoda, the monks, and the Khmer temple management board mobilized the people to participate. Temples must be prepared to recruit swimmers who are healthy boys in squirrels to practice to compete in the big festival.

Ngo boat is an item considered to be sacred by the Khmer and the temple is also a valuable property of the phum squirrel, well preserved in the temple. In the past, Ngo boat was launched once on Ok Om Bok festival. Ghe Ngo has a length of about 22 to 26m, each boat has from 50 to 60 swimmers. Originally, Ngo boat was a big type of dugout boat, made of good wood.

Today, the Ngo boat is made of long planks put together. Ghe Ngo has a curved nose and a steering wheel, the body is decorated with colorful motifs, the boat head has the shape of an animal symbolizing the boat and its temple. In the middle of the boat, people put a long tree from the beginning to the end of the boat called a fishing rod to balance and make the boat buoyant when swimming.

Regarding the legend of Ngo boat racing, there are many legends associated with river life such as boat transportation, fighting or boat racing in order to practice steering skills in the river area and raise public awareness. , martial spirit ... It is also said that the Ngo boat racing festival is associated with Buddhism because in the past there was a day at the Horse's time, the monks on the road begging for food suddenly poured immense water, the Buddha I tried my best to bring monks to the temple, so the Ngo boat racing festival was held ...

Conservation and promotion
In recent years, contributing to building a Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, along with conservation, Ok Om Bok - Ngo boat racing festival of Khmer people in Soc Trang is increasingly being promoted. , elevate and get Khmer people in the neighboring provinces to participate in the race and competition at the Ngo Soc Trang boat racing festival every year.

These days, not only Khmer people but also Kinh and Chinese people in Soc Trang also celebrate the festive season with many rich activities ...

This year, Ok Om Bok Festival Week - Ngo boat racing of the Soc Trang Khmer compatriots takes place from November 16 to 22, the focus of the Festival Week takes place on November 21 and 22 with the Ngo Boat Race. in 2018. The race has competition of 48 boat teams (38 male boat teams and 10 female boat teams), in which Soc Trang province has 34 Ngo boat teams, the rest are boats from Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Hau Giang. , Vĩnh Long.

On the occasion of Ok Om Bok Festival - Ngo boat racing also has many activities such as: Trade Fair, Exhibition, Tourism and Food Festival, Five-Tone Music Festival and Khmer Folk Dance Festival in Soc Trang Province ... Besides, visitors also admire the fanciful, sparkling image of the water lamp on the evening of October 15 of the lunar calendar ...

According to Mr. Danh Phuong, Deputy Head of the Ethnic Minority Committee of Soc Trang Province: Ok Om Bok Festival Week - Ngo boat racing in Soc Trang is organized to preserve and promote the traditional cultural values ​​of the Khmer people; Through the festival, it also promotes and introduces images of the locality and people of Soc Trang; introducing potentials and strengths of the province's economy, culture and tourism, calling for attracting domestic and foreign investors to Soc Trang.

In recent years, the lives of Khmer people have been improved with the attention of the Party and State, the authorities, Ok Om Bok festival - Ngo boat racing in Soc Trang increasingly organized. tissue, going into more depth.

The festival is an occasion to strengthen community relationships so that the ethnic minorities in Soc Trang increasingly engage, emulate production labor, and build beautiful and rich Soc Trang hometown.