The Dong Nai Ethnic Minorities Committee on April 16 handed over Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung’s gifts and letter to ethnic Khmer people in the southeastern province of Dong Nai to congratulate them on their new year festival, the Chol Chnam Thmay.

Dong Nai province is now home to more than 1,000 Khmer households with almost 4,600 people, who have received due attention and help from their provincial authorities to celebrate the festival, one of the Khmer’s three largest annual festivals in their traditional calendar, namely the Chol Chnam Thmay (New Year), the Oc Om Bok - a festival to thank the Moon for a good harvest, and the Sene Dolta festival in which the Khmer express their gratitude to ancestors.

Thanks to the Government Programme 134, more than 300 Khmer households in the province have been provided with housing, land for housing and production, and safe water.

Also on this occasion, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs Son Phuoc Hoan has visited Ca Sang and Can Duoc pagodas in the Mekong delta province of Soc Trang to extend his best wishes to almost 400,000 Khmer people who are celebrating their three-day Chol Chnam Thmay since April 14./.