Green rice flakes - a sacred flavor in the New Rice Festival of the people of Lao Cai.

Every year in September and October, when the terraced rice fields in Lao Cai turn a brilliant golden color, it's also the time when the New Rice Festival is celebrated with great fanfare throughout the villages.

For the ethnic minority communities here, the New Rice Festival has a special meaning, similar to the Lunar New Year of the Kinh people.

And in that sacred offering, young rice flakes – a treat made from unripe rice – are always an indispensable dish.

In recent years, many localities in Lao Cai have been striving to revive the traditional craft of making puffed rice, both to preserve cultural aspects associated with agricultural beliefs and to create livelihoods and develop community tourism.

Preserving traditional rituals associated with rice flakes.

During the New Rice Festival, each ethnic group in Lao Cai has its own rituals to celebrate the new rice crop. The Tay people in Bac Ha, Ban Lien, Khanh Yen, Nghia Do, etc., have the custom of offering sticky rice cakes; the Giay people in Ta Van and Bat Xat perform the Then sticky rice cake ritual; and the Nung Din people in Bac Ha make sticky rice cakes to welcome the spirit of the mother rice.

Although customs vary from place to place, a common practice is that the first harvest of rice grains is always offered to ancestors as a thank-you to the rice god and a prayer for a bountiful harvest. This is an important ritual in the rice worship beliefs of agricultural communities in the highlands.

During the glutinous rice harvest season, the Giáy people in Tả Van choose an auspicious day to make cốm (roasted rice flakes) and offer them to their ancestors.

The rice grains harvested from the fields must be of just the right size, which is a crucial step in ensuring that Bac Ha sticky rice flakes are chewy and delicious. (Photo: Quoc Khanh/TTXVN)

From early morning, the women of Ta Van Giay village go to the fields to select glutinous rice grains that are just ripe enough to make sticky rice cakes – when the grains are still milky and the husks are slightly yellow – to produce soft and fragrant rice flakes.

The harvested rice must be processed immediately to preserve its fragrant aroma. The rice is roasted, pounded, and sifted multiple times to reveal the cool, green, and soft rice flakes.

The Tay people in Khanh Yen call the New Rice Festival the "Kin Khau Mau" ceremony, usually held at the end of the two main production seasons of the year.

The shaman chooses an auspicious day and announces it so that all the families in the area can participate in the ceremony. People select the most beautiful rice stalks, boil them in water, and place them on the altar to pray for a bountiful harvest.

After the offering ceremony, the rice will be roasted over a fire to make puffed rice. (Photo: Nguyen Oanh/TTXVN)

After the offering ceremony, the rice is roasted over a fire to make puffed rice. From puffed rice, the Tay people also prepare many dishes such as sticky rice, sweet soup, porridge, cakes, etc., to offer as sacrifices, each dish having its own distinctive sweet and savory flavor.

Thanks to these rituals, the craft of making puffed rice in Lao Cai has not faded away but has instead been preserved as an important part of the culinary identity of the highland people.

Exploiting the economic and tourism value of puffed rice grains.

Beyond being a cultural gift, sticky rice flakes have now become a marketable product, helping to increase people's income.

Traditionally, puffed rice has gradually established its position in rural economic development linked to community tourism.

At the 2025 Bac Ha "Intoxicated by Autumn" Festival, the process of making green rice flakes was recreated at the Hoang A Tuong Mansion, attracting a large number of tourists.

For tourists, the opportunity to make sticky rice flakes themselves, experiencing the entire process from harvesting rice to roasting and pounding, further enhances their appreciation for the fragrant, chewy rice flakes and the hard work of the farmers.

Bac Ha sticky rice flakes have a distinctive flavor thanks to the cool climate, the soil suitable for fragrant sticky rice, and the traditional processing techniques of the local people.

Currently, in Bac Ha commune, villages such as Ta Chai and Na Hoi have hundreds of households producing puffed rice. Every day, the Bac Ha market sells hundreds of kilograms of fresh puffed rice at prices ranging from 120,000 to 150,000 VND per kilogram. Many households earn tens of millions of VND per season, contributing to a stable livelihood.

Besides selling fresh green rice flakes, the locals have also created many other products such as green rice flake cakes, green rice flake sticky rice, green rice flake sweet soup, green rice flake-infused wine, etc.

In particular, the Na Lo Village Women's Cooperative has produced Na Lo sticky rice flakes, achieving OCOP 3-star certification, elevating the value of upland sticky rice.

After harvesting, the rice stalks are threshed manually to separate the mature, unripe grains, ensuring that Bac Ha sticky rice flakes have maintained their brand reputation to this day. (Photo: Quoc Khanh/TTXVN)

To promote OCOP products and attract community tourism, the People's Committee of Tu Le commune also organized the Green Rice Festival with the theme "The Flavors and Colors of Autumn in Tu Le."

Visitors can participate in a range of activities such as pounding rice to make flakes, displaying Tú Lệ rice flakes, competing in ethnic costume contests, cooking traditional feasts, and experiencing the making of Tan Nà Lóng sticky rice flakes…

The festival space was also vibrant with many folk games: tug-of-war, blindfolded duck catching, climbing a greasy pole, stilt walking...

Alongside this are folk art performances and the "Beauty of the Girls from the Rice Flakes Region" contest, offering a unique cultural experience for visitors from near and far.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/com-huong-vi-linh-thieng-trong-tet-com-moi-cua-dong-bao-lao-cai-post1061950.vnp