Have you heard about Loi Protip, the Khmer people’s lantern floating festival?

The Khmer ethnic community who call the southern Vietnamese region home hold a cherished long-standing bond with rivers and sampans in both their daily and spiritual life.

Members of the community build Loi Protip boats on the 15th day of the ninth lunar month .

The name Loi Protip in Pali, a Prakrit language native to the Indian subcontinent, means “light," which, along with “paths," represents reunification between children and their deceased parents.

The ritual is also meant to extend sincere apologies and heartfelt gratitude to the deities of Land and Water for humans polluting the resources with discharge from their daily consumption and production activities.

Crisscrossed with rivers, canals and paddy fields, Soc Trang Province in the Mekong Delta is a perfect venue for the lantern floating ceremony.

The Loi Protip ritual can be traced back over 2,000 years, before the Buddhist-themed practice gradually made its way to the Mekong Delta, where Khmer settlers were among the earliest residents. 

Below are a series of photos by Dinh Cong Tam showing the festival.

These photos were one of the entries to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's year-long competition themed “Vietnam – Country – People" concluding in October last year. 

Gratitude – the legendary light illuminates the minds of Khmer people. The lanterns are loaded with children’s gratitude for their own presents.

Villagers in Tan Hung Commune build lanterns shaped as their own traditional-style houses each year.

The river sparkles with the glittering lantern, the design of which is based on the pagoda’s decorative patterns.

Children are as eager for the Loi Protip celebration as they are for Tet (Lunar New Year).

Light passes from one person to the next and from generation to generation.

Locals carry a house-shaped Loi Protip lantern on a sampan to where it will be floated. The emitted light brings sound and fun wherever it goes.

The celebration means fun and festivity for local kids.

Locals carry the lantern around the village before taking it to the river.

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