Photo: Bao Dan Toc

On the evening of April 28, at Binh Thuy District Square (Can Tho City), the People's Committee of Can Tho City held the opening ceremony of the 10th Southern Folk Cakes Festival in 2023, with the theme "Preserving and promoting the value of Southern traditional cakes".

The opening ceremony of the Southern Folk Cakes Festival and culture program to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and reunification of the country (April 30), International Labor Day (May 1), and 133 years of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday (May 19) took place on a grand and unique scale, making an impression on thousands of audiences. In addition to the main activities, the Festival also has many activities such as the program "Folk Games", the program "Folk Cakes and our Childhood", and fashion and art performance nights to serve visitors.

Mr. Nguyen Thuc Hien - Vice Chairman of City People's Committee. Can Tho, Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2023 Southern Folk Cake Festival gave the opening speech

Speaking at the Opening Ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Thuc Hien - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee. Can Tho, said: Southern folk cakes are a typical type of culture and cuisine of Southern people. During the process of production and exchange between ethnic groups, people have creatively utilized ingredients from sticky rice to process into folk cakes, containing profound and familiar cultural values, engraving in the minds of Southern people and tourists from near and far. “The Southern Folk Cakes Festival has become an important tourism event to preserve and promote the value of Vietnamese culinary culture in general and Southern folk values ​​in particular, honoring the labor and creative process of folk cake artisans, promoting the processing and production of folk cakes to become a Southern specialty, gradually building a brand, promoting the city's increasingly developed tourism and international integration," Mr. Hien said.

Mr. Le Quang Manh - Secretary of Can Tho City Party Committee (standing in the middle left) and Mr. Pham Van Hieu - Permanent Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the City People's Council. Can Tho (standing in the middle right), awarded souvenir flags to units participating in the Festival

This is a large-scale event held annually in Can Tho, actively contributing to preserving and promoting the city's traditional cultural values ​​and culinary culture in particular and the Mekong Delta in general.

Mr. Tran Viet Truong - Chairman of the City People's Committee. Can Tho (6th person on the left) and Mr. Nguyen Trung Nhan (4th person on the right) - Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. Can Tho, giving flowers to express gratitude to sponsors of the Festival

According to the Organizing Committee, there will be about 300 booths and 100 types of folk cakes introduced at the 10th Southern Folk Cakes Festival in 2023. The contest not only creates opportunities for artisans to create and improve their skills potential, but also an opportunity to introduce the quintessence of folk cuisine with a variety of cakes from the Kinh, Chinese, Khmer, and Cham ethnic groups.

A variety of cakes are displayed at the 2023 Folk Cake Festival

The festival is divided into zones: Southern folk cakes, OCOP products, area displaying folk baking tools, cuisine, crafts, and souvenirs.

Traditional Cham cakes are prepared at the Festival to serve visitors

In 2023, the contest has 27 participating teams, and 73 types of cake, gathering 168 artisans (47 main artisans and 121 supporting artisans) from 11 provinces: Can Tho, Hau Giang, Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Ben Tre, An Giang, Dong Thap, and Binh Thuan.

The artisans have carefully prepared a variety of folk cakes for the contest and many new, unique, and creative cakes such as jackfruit flower pancakes, rice snail-filled khot cakes, pandan leaf coconut cookies filled with salted eggs, luffa leaf cake, dried Thoi Long silkworm cake, and durian cake. Many artisans participated with cakes named after fruits such as custard apple cake, mangosteen cake, tomato cake, and eggplant cake. Especially, there were many types of folk cakes of the Khmer and Cham ethnic groups on display and cooked at the Festival.

Coming from An Giang, artisans bring to the Festival traditional folk cakes of the Khmer people

The Folk Cakes Festival aims to enhance cultural exchanges between provinces and cities within the country with international friends, and is an opportunity to promote and develop tourism, contributing to the socio-economic development of Can Tho. The festival takes place from April 28 to May 2, with the closing ceremony at 7:00 p.m. on May 2, at the Festival Square in Binh Thuy district.

References: baodantoc.vn