The raft race: Recreate the history of prisoner prison struggle Con Dao

Friday - 31/05/2019 09:50

Celebrating 44 years of Southern liberation, reunification, 40 years of Con Dao National Special Monument. In the morning of April 27, Con Dao district held the 14th traditional raft race in 2019. This is not only a sport competition, but also a form of reconstructing the history of struggle with the events. "Making raft out of prison", returning to the mainland continued the revolutionary activities of generations of Con Dao prisoners in the past.

The traditional rafting festival of Con Dao district this year has the participation of 17 teams; each team has 7 athletes from residential areas, businesses and armed forces in Con Dao district.
Just before the opening time, in the 914 Pier areas, the starting point of the raft race, the atmosphere was very exciting. 17 rafts are decorated with fully assembled flower flags waiting for the departure order. On the east bank, people and tourists gathered to prepare for the opening and cheering for the rowers.
At 7:30 am, the opening ceremony takes place in a solemn atmosphere, deposited with a ceremony to commemorate the heroic martyrs sacrificed on the land of Con Dao with a minute of celebration and a ceremony to drop flowers into the sea.
After the opening ceremony, the teams came to the starting line to prepare to start the competition. This year, the raft festival is held on Con Son Bay with a starting point from the historic wharf 914 to the area of Dugong cape (the intersection between Nguyen Van Cu road and Ton Duc Thang street) then the teams will return Go to the destination at the starting point with a total distance of 1.800m.
At 8:00 am, the siren of the departure order resounded, and the 10 rafts began to accelerate and kept chasing each other. All the rowers participating in Con Dao raft race are non-amateurs, each with each job, who is a farmer, who is a fisherman, a worker and a district soldier, but when participating In the race, all of them played their best with movements of strong and definitive paddles, showing high determination. On the shore, a large number of people and tourists gather along the embankment of Ton Duc Thang Street, cheering and cheering for the rowers, especially when the teams reach their destination, the atmosphere becomes more and more jubilant, uproarious.
The rafts participated in the tournament are made of simple, easy-to-find materials such as bamboo, wood, cork ... with a compact and compact design. This is also the old materials, the Con Dao prisoners used to make friends to escape.
Due to the rigorous preparation and practice, the teams all competed with strong endurance; all 17 of the rafts came to safety, giving the audience the exciting races. When rolling the finishers as well as the audience members are happy and excited because they have completed this meaningful race.
Is a main content in the plan of organizing activities to celebrate the big holidays in April and May and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Con Dao National Special Monument. The reconstruction of the history of "Making raft out of prison” through raft competition has gradually become a traditional festival of the locality, thereby contributing to raising awareness, preserving and promoting revolutionary traditions in the strata. At the same time, this is an opportunity to promote and attract tourists to Con Dao and island districts that contain great values of revolutionary history in the process of fighting for national independence.
After more than an hour of exciting and attractive competition with noble sportsmanship and enthusiastic cheering of the audience, the 14th Con Dao traditional rafting festival in 2019 closed and made a good impression beautiful in the participants. This is truly a unique and cheerful culture that needs to be preserved and promoted in order to honor the values of great revolutionary history and at the same time educate the patriotic tradition associated with the task of construction and protection country for generations today and tomorrow./.