(AG Provincial E-Portal) - On the morning of November 5, at the bank of the Cai Lon River, Go Quao Commune, the People’s Committee of An Giang Province organized the opening ceremony of the 17th Khmer Ethnic Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival of An Giang Province in 2025. Attending the ceremony were Lam Minh Thanh, Deputy Secretary of the An Giang Provincial Party Committee; Nguyen Thanh Phong, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee and Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee; Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People’s Committee Le Van Phuoc and Le Trung Ho; the Provincial Party Standing Committee and leaders of provincial departments and agencies.
The 17th Khmer Ethnic Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival of An Giang Province in 2025 takes place from November 04 to 06, 2025 (corresponding to September 15–17 in the lunar calendar), coinciding with the Ok Om Bok Festival – one of the major annual festivals of the Khmer people in the Southern region.
The Ok Om Bok Festival is held at the end of the harvest season to express gratitude to the Moon – the natural deity who helps protect crops, regulate weather, bring abundant fruits, and ensure prosperity for villages.
This year’s festival includes many activities in both the ceremonial and festive parts: Moon Worship Ceremony; trade fair and local product exhibition; display of Khmer images and artifacts; book exhibition; contest of beautiful water stages; sports activities such as men’s football, volleyball, Taekwondo; especially, the highlight of the festival is the Ngo boat race for men and mixed teams, cultural performances, and the Khmer Traditional Arts Festival of An Giang Province in 2025.
It is expected that the festival’s activities will attract about 200,000–250,000 visitors from inside and outside the province.
In his opening speech, Vice Chairman Le Trung Ho affirmed that the annual Khmer Ethnic Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival is a traditional cultural activity of great significance, aiming to preserve, honor, and promote traditional cultural identity, and to care for the spiritual life of the Khmer ethnic community in the province.
The festival is also an occasion for ethnic communities in general and the Khmer people in particular to raise awareness of responsibility toward traditional culture, strengthen the great national unity bloc, contribute to socio-economic development, consolidate national defense and security, and ensure the successful implementation of the targets and tasks set by the Party Congress at all levels.
Through the festival’s activities, the values of Khmer culture in the province are honored and promoted nationwide, creating opportunities for ethnic communities to meet, exchange, and participate in cultural, artistic, physical, and sports activities; fostering solidarity and connection among ethnic groups within and outside the province.
At the same time, the festival promotes the cultural image of the locality to visitors from near and far; demonstrates the Party and State’s concern for preserving and developing the cultural values of the Khmer people in the context of national integration; creates conditions to boost socio-economic development, improve material and spiritual life for the people, so that the Khmer community can join the nation in entering a new era of growth and progress.
After the opening ceremony, the festival featured the Ngo boat races in the men’s 800m, men’s 1,200m, and mixed men–women 800m distances, attracting thousands of spectators.
News by Nhu Ngoc
Translator: Thi Huynh
