A boat race held in Chau Thanh district, Kien Giang province, on April 8 to mark the Chol Chnam Thmay festival. (Photo: VNA)The 2023 Chol Chnam Thmay festivalwill take place from April 14 to 16 (the 24th - 26th ofthe second lunar month).
With over 13% of its population beingKhmer people (238,000), Kien Giang is home to the third largest Khmer communityin the Mekong Delta, after Soc Trang and Tra Vinh provinces.
This year, all descendants in the familyof Danh Nguon in Hoa Thanh hamlet of Dinh Hoa commune, Go Quao district, willreturn home from faraway working places to celebrate the festival. Thefamily is busily preparing for the event, especially making “banh tet”, a traditionalcylindrical-shaped dish made from glutinous rice, mung bean and pork, topresent as gifts to relatives and offer to ancestors.
Nguon said after a hardworking year, his family treasures the reunion on thisoccasion most, and the festival is also a time for reminding descendants of thefine long-standing customs.
Danh Ut, a resident in Binh Loi hamletof Minh Hoa commune, noted Khmer people have never celebrated the traditionalNew Year festival as joyfully as this year.
Chol Chnam Thmay is an occasion toeducate younger generations on filial piety, meet relatives and friends, exchangegreetings, review achievements in a year, and encourage charitable work.
Traditionally, people visit pagodasto offer flowers and prayers to the Buddha on the first day of the New Year andthen engage in festive activities, including folk singing and dancing.
This year, Chau Thanh district hasorganised a boat race to celebrate Chol Chnam Thmay, attracting 25 teams with250 members and thousands of spectators. The race is also a traditionalactivity every New Year festival of the Khmer community.
Danh Phuc, head of the Kien Giang boardfor ethnic minority affairs, said that to help locals welcome a merry festival,the board has coordinated with relevant agencies and localities to organisesuch activities as holding gatherings with monks, retired cadres, martyrs’families, war invalids, revolution contributors, and reputable persons in thecommunity, and visiting and presenting gifts to the provincial Association forSolidarity of Patriotic Monks, Khmer pagodas, boarding schools for ethnicminority students, and disadvantaged families.
He went on to say that despitedifficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, local Khmer people have stillbenefited from better life quality.
Phuc highlighted improvements ineducation and health care, stable political security and social order andsafety, as well as enhanced solidarity among ethnic groups. He attributed thoseattainments partly to the timely implementation of programmes, projects, andpolicies on ethnic minorities, along with people’s consensus and adherence tothe Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws.
As a result, many households havesucceeded in developing production and business, helping to alleviate povertyin the Khmer community. Under the multidimensional approach, the householdpoverty rate among local ethnic minority groups has been brought down to 3.68% and the rate of near-poor households down to nearly 6%, according to theofficial./.
VNA
