Previously, on June 3, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a Decision to announce and include the Thak Con Festival (Coconut Offering) of the Khmer people in An Hiep commune, Chau Thanh district, Soc Trang province in the list of national intangible cultural heritage. Ms. Chau Thi Chuc, Director of the Chau Thanh District Culture, Sports and Tourism Center, said: “The Thak Con Festival (also known as the Coconut Offering Festival) is a traditional folk festival of the Khmer people with profound meaning, expressing respect for ancestors, praying for peace, happiness and fostering solidarity among ethnic communities in the area. The festival has been formed and preserved for over 300 years.
On June 3, 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued Decision No. 1661/QD-BVHTTDL to announce and include the Thak Con Festival (Coconut Offering Festival) of the Khmer people in An Hiep commune, Chau Thanh district, Soc Trang province in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. This is the joy and honor of the Khmer people in Chau Thanh district in particular and the people of Soc Trang province in general. Up to now, Soc Trang province has had 10 heritages included in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Thak Con Festival is considered by local people as a festival to pray for peace, often held at the beginning of the rainy season in the South.
According to Ms. Chau Thi Chuc, the Thak Con festival is a place for cultural activities of the people in the region, expressing the unique cultural identity of the Khmer people. The festival is associated with the belief of praying for peace, which is strongly agricultural in nature, associated with the working life of the Khmer people in the South. The festival takes place for 5 days according to the Khmer calendar, at the Thak Con temple (An Trach hamlet, An Hiep commune, Chau Thanh district), in which the opening ceremony begins early in the morning of the 15th day of the 3rd lunar month every year. This festival is considered by the people as a ceremony to pray for peace, favorable weather, and favorable business, usually held at the beginning of the rainy season after the harvest. The Thak Con festival is not only a unique spiritual and cultural heritage of the Khmer people in Soc Trang, but also a bridge connecting the community, preserving and spreading traditional values in modern life. And it is an opportunity for each Khmer child to return to their roots, send wishes for peace and foster love for their homeland.
According to the explanation of the local people, Thak Con is the name given in Khmer by the local people. Thak means "pedaling", and Con means "gong", Thak Con means Pedaling Gong, recalling the legend of the sound of gongs resounding from the ground. In addition, this name can also be called Coconut Offering Festival, because there is a custom of offering flower vases made of coconuts. According to the elders and the temple's management board, the origin of the Thak Con festival has existed for hundreds of years, originating from the legend of a golden gong that emerged in the ancient land of An Trach. Accordingly, on this land, a mound of earth naturally emerged in the shape of a gong, and when people stepped on it, the sound of the gong echoed like the sound of a gong. After a while, the sound of the gong in the ground gradually faded and then disappeared. The people considered it sacred, so they built a temple to worship it and every year on the 16th day of the third lunar month, the people of An Trach hamlet hold a festival to pray for peace here.
The offerings in the festival are flower vases made from fresh coconuts with two sides cut, then inserted into them are flowers made from green betel leaves and decorative flowers, creating an offering symbolizing purity, cleanliness but extremely solemn, concentrated on a very special offering that the Khmer call Slathodon (don is coconut), which is a characteristic of this festival. Salathodon is made by the people themselves or bought ready-made to offer at the temple. The people here offer coconuts and other things such as: incense, lamps, lotus flowers, red thread...
The fruits and flowers symbolizing purity and sacredness are concentrated on a very special offering that the Khmer people call Slathodon - a flower vase made of coconut. The flower part is made up of green betel leaves and flowers. The betel leaves, an indispensable offering in wedding ceremonies and ancestor worship ceremonies of ethnic groups in the Mekong Delta, are clustered into leaves to decorate the Slathodon. The simple, economical and quite beautiful Slathodon flower vase has a very high symbolic value and is the main offering in the ceremony.
After placing the offerings on the altar, start lighting incense and praying. The content of the prayer mainly expresses the wish for peace and happiness, praying for favorable weather, good crops, a peaceful and happy life for everyone, helping people remember their roots, ancestors, grandparents to live in harmony and love each other more. After the offering, the person who prays brings the blessing home with the offerings with the hope that their wishes will be fulfilled. Stemming from the solemnity, the person who performs the ceremony in the festival must also be upright, honest, reputable in the community, and trusted by many people.
The Thak Con Festival takes place with the main rituals bearing the Buddhist spirit. Accordingly, during the 3 days of the festival, the main rituals are similar to the peace-praying ceremony, including: Morning offering rice to monks, evening inviting monks to chant sutras for the dead, doing good deeds to pray for peace for the people and finally giving sermons to Buddhists about Buddhist teachings. During the festival, there are cultural, artistic, fun and entertaining activities of the traditional Du Ke Stage Art Troupe, restaurants and cafes serving the festival from evening to morning.
All the rituals in the festival reflect the absolute belief of the residents of the land with the legendary “golden gong” in a unique cultural symbol, the gong, an object that has the meaning of gathering the community and is also a product of spiritual culture, especially when every time there are traditional festivals, the gongs resound in the hamlets, villages, and communes where the Khmer people live. The sound of the gong reminds children of solidarity, love, mutual assistance and above all, the spirit of loving work and creating material wealth as the wishes of all the Khmer people in Soc Trang province in general and Chau Thanh district in particular.
The Thak Con Festival contributes to adding a form of praying for peace in the festival system of the Khmer people in the South. From a local festival, more and more visitors from all over the country come to the annual festival. Every year, on the festival day, tens of thousands of people from inside and outside the province come to attend.
Up to now, Soc Trang province has had 10 heritages included in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, including: Du Ke Stage Art (2014); Southern Amateur Music Art (2012); Tran De Whale Festival (2019); Ro Bam Art (2019); Rom vong Dance Folk Performance Art (2019); Ngu Am Music Folk Performance Art (2019); Traditional Craft of Pia Cake Making of the Chinese People of Soc Trang (2020); Ngo Boat Racing Festival of the Khmer People of Soc Trang (2022); Chroi Rum Chek Festival - Phuoc Bien Festival of the Khmer people of Vinh Chau town (2025) and Thak Con Festival - Coconut Offering Festival of the Khmer people of An Hiep commune, Chau Thanh district (2025).
Source: https://cand.com.vn/Chuyen-dong-van-hoa/le-hoi-thak-con-cua-dong-bao-khmer-soc-trang-duoc-cong-nhan-la-di-san-van-hoa-phi-vat-the-quoc-gia-i772107/
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