Attractive Ooc Om Boc Festival and Ngo Boat Racing

Can Tho holds the record for having the most Ngo boats participating in the competition.

The festival is an occasion to send water to the river, because the festival is held at the end of the year, the rainfall has decreased a lot; secondly, farmers start harvesting crops and agricultural products; thirdly, the Khmer people have the Moon Worshiping ceremony in the Ooc Om Boc festival.

The Khmer people consider the Moon to be a god that regulates the harvest of the year. Therefore, they take sticky rice and other crops to make offerings to the Moon.

On the full moon night when the moon is high, people gather in the temple yard or the yard of their house to perform the ceremony. First, people plant two bamboo trees and use coconut leaves to form an archway. On the gate, there is a betel string with 12 leaves symbolizing the 12 months of the year and a areca string with 7 fruits split like two bee wings symbolizing the 7 days of the week.

At night, everyone sits with their hands clasped, facing the Moon to perform the ceremony. When the Moon rises high and shines brightly, everyone begins to burn incense and lamps, then invites the oldest and most prestigious person in the village or in the house to perform the ceremony.

During the Ooc Om Boc festival, one of the most exciting and bustling activities that everyone looks forward to is the Ngo boat racing festival. Ngo boats are about 22-24 meters long, 1.2 meters wide, and have 50-60 swimmers. Ngo boats are a large dugout canoe, carved from good wood.

The Ngo boat has a curved bow and rudder, the body is decorated with colorful patterns, the head of the boat has an animal symbolizing the boat. Under the hull of the boat, people place a long stick from head to tail called a fishing rod (donxanh tuok) to maintain balance and make the boat increase speed when swimming.

Ngo boat racing is a bustling activity that attracts spectators.

Today, Ngo Boat Racing has become a common festival of the three ethnic groups Kinh-Khmer-Hoa, making the relationship between the ethnic communities in Can Tho increasingly closer, competing in labor production, building the homeland more and more prosperous. Khmer people in Can Tho organize Ngo Boat Racing Festival as a good custom.

Releasing water lanterns is one of the indispensable activities in the Ooc Om Boc - Ngo Boat Racing festival. The lantern is structured like a temple, usually made of banana trunks and leaves, decorated with patterns and a colorful lighting system. Flags and pennants are hung at the top of the lantern, candles and incense are placed around it, and offerings are displayed inside.

Recreating the process of making flattened green rice in the festival

Releasing water lanterns in the festival

At the beginning of the water lantern releasing ceremony, monks and people lit candles and incense around the lanterns, then chanted sutras to remember Buddha and apologize to Earth and Water for dirtying and polluting the water source and digging up the land.

During the Ooc Om Boc - Ngo Boat Race Festival, there are many other attractive traditional cultural and sports activities of the Khmer people such as snail chess, iron ball, Ram Vong dance, Rong Leo... Visitors can also admire the magical, sparkling image of water lanterns, and join in the atmosphere of the festival where the locals have fun all night long. Surely the festival will be an unforgettable impression for those who have visited Can Tho.

People and tourists participate in cultural and artistic activities

According to the plan of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism , this year's festival has 5 main activities, including the opening program of the festival, Ngo boat racing, Moon worshiping ceremony, Loiprotip competition (water lantern release) and Ca Hau boat performance, Trade promotion fair of OCOP products of Can Tho city and regional specialties... In which, the highlight of the festival is the traditional Ngo boat racing, with about 60 male and female Ngo boat teams expected to participate.

It is expected that this year's Ooc Om Boc festival will take place from November 3-5, at locations in Phu Loi and Soc Trang wards such as: Bach Dang Square, 30/4 Park, Ngo boat racing track grandstand - Maspéro River, 5A urban area, on Maspéro River - between C247 bridge (Sydle bridge) and 30/4 bridge (Cao bridge), Kh'leang pagoda...

Nguyen Thanh Phong

Source: https://nhandan.vn/hap-dan-le-hoi-ooc-om-boc-va-dua-ghe-ngo-post900100.html