Khmer People Warmly Welcome New Year

 

With the highest Khmer population in Kien Giang province, Go Quao district organises many cultural and entertainment programmes for the ethnic group to join and welcome the New Year. In addition to organising visits to pagodas and policy-beneficiary families, Go Quao district organises folk arts for the people. Khmer temples organise many activities like sailing, boat racing, tug of war, volleyball and other folk games during the holiday. According to local Khmer people, this year’s Tet activities will be livelier than previous years because of more active new countryside construction movements.

 

Mr Nguyen Viet Khoa, Head of Go Quao Ethnicity Committee, said that this year’s activities are more exciting because the spiritual life of the people is improved. Every year, they stand on both banks of canals in Thuy Lieu to cheer during the Ok-om-bok Festival.

 

Danh Luong, a retiree in Rach Gia City, said his family will celebrate a bigger New Year reunion this year because his children have completed studying, found good jobs and had good residences. On the threshold of the New Year, he wished his family peace and wished everyone wealth and happiness. Luong hoped that, in the New Year, his family is in harmony and has no disputes with the Party and the government. He also hoped to witness a sharp reduction in traffic accidents.

 

Currently, Khmer temples are being restored and cleansed for people to pay tribute to God and ancestors. Huynh La, chief administrator of Thanh Gia Pagoda in Go Quao district, who is well-known for philanthropy, said that as local farmers have good farming crops this year, they are preparing a very affluent New Year welcome. The pagoda has also gotten prepared for their New Year visits and ceremonies.

 

Khmer hamlets in Kien Giang province have now begun with boisterous and playful melodies of the New Year. Everyone is urgently preparing and enthusiastically practising for cultural, arts and sporting performances for this special event.