Ok Om Bok Festival is the biggest and most anticipated festival of the year for the Khmer people in the South. The Khmer people celebrate the Moon Worshiping Ceremony to pray for a year of favorable weather, bountiful harvests, and happiness for the villagers. For the Khmer people, the moon is considered a god that regulates the harvest and blesses the people with a prosperous economy throughout the year, so on this day, every family participates in the Moon Worshiping Ceremony. The festival usually takes place in the provinces of Tra Vinh, Soc Trang... where the Khmer ethnic group lives in large numbers.
The Khmer people take sticky rice and flatten it into green rice flakes along with other crops such as sweet potatoes, taro, fruits, candies, etc. to make offerings to the moon.
Next is the construction of the bamboo gate. The gate is made of flowers and leaves with 2 bamboo trees as pillars and coconut leaves as the horizontal arch. Above the gate, the Khmer people hang a betel string with 12 rolled 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. Under the bamboo gate, moon worshiping offerings are placed neatly to show respect to the Moon God.
The preparation of offerings is completed, on the night of the 14th full moon or the 15th when the moon is high (the main day of the festival), the villagers gather in the temple yard or the yard of their house, facing the moon to perform the ceremony. The ceremony is attended by both the elderly and children. The master of ceremonies is the oldest person in the village, hamlet or in the house, praying to express people's gratitude to the Moon god, asking the Moon god to accept the offerings and give everyone health and good crops.
After the offering, the celebrant will feed the children with flattened green rice and pat their backs a few times while asking them about their wishes. The Khmer believe that the wishes of children will be the faith and motivation for adults in the coming year.
According to the traditional customs of the Khmer people, after the Moon Worshiping ceremony, the festival activities begin, the most special of which is the Ngo boat racing. This is a traditional ritual to send the water god back to the sea after the planting season, and is also a religious ritual to commemorate the ancient snake god Nagar who transformed into a log to carry Buddha across the river.
The Ngo boat race takes place in a bustling and exciting atmosphere with the participation of many people and tourists. The racing teams come from many localities in the province or in the region. The Ngo boat is about 22 - 24 m long, 1.2 m wide, with 50 to 60 swimmers. Nowadays, because there are no longer large wooden trunks to make, the Ngo boat is built with many long planks joined together. The bow and the rudder of the boat are curved, the body is decorated with colorful patterns, the head of the boat has the shape of an animal symbolizing the boat. Under the hull of the boat, people place a long stick from the beginning to the end of the boat called a fishing rod (donxanh tuok) to maintain balance and make the boat jump when swimming.
On the river, the racing teams enthusiastically compete, on the shore, the people's cheers and encouragement along with the sound of gongs, singing, chanting, etc. have created a particularly impressive festival atmosphere. Ngo boat racing has become a traditional cultural and sporting event of the Khmer people.
In addition to the Ngo boat racing, the festival also has many other activities such as playing conch chess, iron marbles, Ram Vong dance and releasing water lanterns. Releasing water lanterns is the activity of releasing lanterns made from banana stems and leaves, structured like a temple, decorated with colorful patterns. Flags and pennants are hung at the top of the lantern, candles and incense are placed around it, inside are offerings to chant sutras to commemorate Buddha, and at the same time apologize to the Earth God and Water God for polluting and dirtying the water source, and digging up the soil here.
With rituals imbued with traditional culture and festival activities rich in identity of the Khmer people in the Southwest, the Ok Om Bok festival season will certainly attract a large number of Khmer people, domestic and international tourists to participate.
In 2018, Tra Vinh province was honored to host the "Southern Culture, Tourism and Culinary Festival Week" associated with the Ok Om Bok festival at the provincial level, taking place from November 16 to November 22, 2018 in Tra Vinh city, Tra Vinh province.
