The Ngo boat race of Khmer people in the Mekong delta, which has been upgraded to become a festival this year, concluded in Soc Trang province on November 17, after four days of various cultural activities.

Over 500,000 visitors flocked to the festival to enjoy a series of art performances, a fashion show of Kinh, Khmer and Hoa (Chinese)’s traditional costumes, a Kinh, Khmer and Hoa cuisine festival, folk games, a photograph exhibition depicting Soc Trang and a trade fair.

This year, a record of 62 teams competed in the 1,000m boat race for women and 1,200m for men.

After eight rounds of fierce competition, the team of Cang Long pagoda from Tra Vinh province won the race for men, followed by the teams of Po Thi Pruc pagoda and Pong Tuc Chas pagoda of Soc Trang province.

Meanwhile, the team of Ngan Dua pagoda (Bac Lieu) overcame 14 other teams to rank first in the race for women, followed by the teams from Ky Son pagoda (Vinh Long) and Luong Nghia pagoda (Hau Giang).

The festival’s organising board presented 200 million VND (nearly 10,000 USD) to each winning teams, 150 million VND (7,100 USD) to second-best teams and 100 million VND (around 4,740 USD) third-ranking ones.

During the event, the Vietnam Records Organisation granted certificates in recognition of Vietnam ’s three largest traditional cakes made by Tan Hue Vien Food Processing Co., Ltd.

The biggest “In” cake weighs 595kg and has a diameter of 2.2m. It was made from 300kg of green bean, 180kg of flour, 50kg of durian flesh together with black sesame and sugar.

 The biggest “Pia” cake, which weighs 306kg and is 1.3m in diameter, was made from 160kg of green bean, 60kg of sugar and 20kg of durian flesh. The third cake, “Com det,” was made from 80kg of young rice, 10kg of green bean and 8kg of coconut flesh.

These kinds of cakes are specialties of Soc Trang province and are the main offering in the moon worshipping ritual of Khmer people.

The record cakes were then cut and distributed to around 5,000 lucky visitors.

The Khmer ethnic group in Vietnam number around 1 million people, who live mainly in the Mekong Delta provinces of Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Vinh Long, Kien Giang, An Giang and Can Tho City.-VNA