At the end of October, the Bru-Van Kieu ethnic people of Khe Giua village begin preparing offerings for their New Rice Festival. This celebration usually takes place after a harvest, marking the end of one agricultural cycle and the beginning of a new one.

The People’s Committee of Dien Bien Dong district, Dien Bien province, has worked with the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to hold a ceremony recognising a local new rice festival as a national intangible cultural heritage in Vietnam.

A new rice festival was held in Mu Cang Chai district in the northern province of Yen Bai on September 25 as part of activities surrounding UNESCO’s recognition of Xoe Thai as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The new rice festival in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien is an occasion for people to offer their ancestors traditional dishes, invite them to taste rice from freshly harvested crops, and pray for good health and bumper harvests.

The first day of the new year is also time for the Sedang, an ethnic group among the 54 ethnicities of Vietnam, to celebrate their New Rice Festival.