The bull racing festival in An Giang

Having an opportunity to go many places, experience and participate every traditional festival of our Vietnamese people, but to me, there is no festival that is as close, attractive and distinctive as the annual bull race festival of the Bay Nui mountain in An Giang.

Up to now, this festival has held 20 competition with participants are not only in the An Giang province but also in Kien Giang Province and Cambodia. An Giang is an important stopover for your Vietnam Cambodia  combined Tour. 

No one knows when the first bull racing festival was held. Legend has it that long long time ago, after finishing work in the afternoon, some owner of the cattle excitedly pair their animal to race together. Slowly, this pleasure became a festival with a long history. According to the elderly, the bull racing festival has another origin. Every year, the villager sent their bull to plow on the land the temple. After the plowing time, the bulls usually race in pair. The monks held the festival and decided to award the winner the silver knuckles or beautiful rattles. Since then, bull racing has become a practice of the Khmer of the Bay Nui mountain in Dolta Tet annually. 

Once a year, in Dolta festival of the Khmer, the farmers flock to the bull racetrack with the spirit of sports and desire to win which is not inferior to any other competitions. In the early morning, many people are at the bull racing site. The atmosphere is always jubilant and excited by the applause, cheers of the crowd for the talented bull driver or the thrilling moments when the drivers almost reach the finishing line.

To prepare for the bull racing festival, people choose a flat plot in the temple area with the length of about 200 meters and the width about 100 meters. The whole area is surrounded by high walls. At the finish line, there is space for safety when the drivers stop their cow. At the starting point, people position two green and red flag, each flag is 5 meters apart; and so is the finishing point. When the cow stands at the starting line with one colored flag, there will the same color one at the finish line. Prior to the race, they hold a draw to select the pairs and decide which one will go first. If during the race, which couple of cow running out of the track will be disqualified. Otherwise, the couple poaches on the harrow of the previous cows is the winner. The drivers must stand firmly, if they fall out of the harrow, they will lose.

During the race, the driver holds a whip or a round log with a pointed spear which local people call it a xa-lul. When the referee emits the starting signal, the drivers prickle the xa-lul into the buttock of the cows. They will run forward because of pain. The most important thing is people have to prickle the cows at the same time so that they can run equally. The competition divided into two round, the former is called “hô”, this is the round to help the bulls to get used to with the racing track. The latter is called “thả”, at the starting point, people use the xa-lul to prickle their bulls and run with all his strength to the destination.

In the opinion of the Khmer people, the bull racing festival is a meaningful occasion. The pair of winner cow of the year not only bring their own pride but also bring the whole hamlet joy and hope of a new year with a bountiful harvest. After winning, the value of the winning cows will also be increased but the Khmer won’t kill them. They also won’t sell them, otherwise, they take care of the cows as if a precious asset of the family in particular and the hamlet in general.

The annual An Giang bull racing festival attracts thousands of visitors coming to this land to watch and cheer. This is also a very good opportunity to promote tourism to the people from every corner of the country and the foreigners. More importantly, the festival has contributed to preserving and promoting the unique culture of the Khmer people, which has existed for hundreds of years.