Chol Chnam Thmay New Year festival of the Khmer people in Tra Vinh province (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – A host of events have been arranged in the southern provinces of Soc Trang, Tra Vinh and An Giang to celebrate the traditional Chol Chnam Thmay New Year festival of the Khmer people.
Get-togethers were organised for heroic mothers, people who have made contributions to the country, Khmer monks and followers from local pagodas in Soc Trang and Tra Vinh provinces.
Vice Chairman of the Tra Vinh Patriotic Clergy Solidarity Association Thach Oai expressed his belief in the leadership of the Party and the State’s policies for ethnic minority groups.
He said Khmer people in Tra Vinh will work harder to promote the locality’s development.
In recent years, authorities of Soc Trang and Tra Vinh have paid due attention to improving the material and spiritual lives of the Khmer people.
Infrastructure for education, transport, irrigation, health care and electricity in Soc Trang had improved. In 2015, the province invested over 260 billion VND (11.7 million USD) in developing ethnic minority areas, helping reduce the rate of poor households to less than 15 percent.
Meanwhile, policies and programmes also provided land for housing and cultivation for 11,177 low-income ethnic minority families in Tra Vinh.
On the occasion, representatives from the People’s Counci, the People’s Committee, the Fatherland Front Committee of An Giang province and the province’s Command of the Border Forces also made visits and extended congratulations to the Khmer community in the locality on their traditional New Year festival.
Chol Chnam Thmay is one of the most important festivals of the year for the Khmer community. It usually lasts three days and is celebrated in pagodas. This year’s festival will fall on April 13 to 15 (the seventh to ninth days of the third lunar month).-VNA
