The unique harvest festival of the Co Tu people.

The "New Rice Harvest Festival" is an important ritual in the life of the Co Tu ethnic people in Nam Dong district (now Phu Loc district, Hue City), expressing gratitude to the deities who have protected the people, brought stable lives, favorable weather for the villages, and bountiful harvests.

Currently, a dossier is being prepared for this festival to be submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for inclusion in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The Co Tu ethnic community has many unique cultural festivals, among which the New Rice Festival is a very important ritual in the lives of the Co Tu people in Nam Dong district (now Phu Loc district). At the end of 2024, the Department of Culture and Information of Phu Loc district successfully collected and restored the original version of the Co Tu New Rice Festival, while also developing solutions to promote this festival and create an attractive tourist destination in the mountainous region of the district. The New Rice Festival recreates the scene of Co Tu girls threshing rice from the early morning, before the sun has even risen. With their skillful, gentle hands and meticulous attention to detail, the village girls harvest the fertile, golden, ripe rice grains, reflecting a bountiful harvest for the villagers.

In the communal Gươl house, the festival space of the village, everyone, from young to old, wears traditional clothing to participate. Village elders and respected figures are invited as guests to attend their village's festival. Farming tools are brought into the Gươl house to report to the spirits and ancestors about the results of the recent harvest. Young men hunt together to gather food for the offering tray… The offering tray celebrating the new rice harvest of the Cơ Tu people usually includes: sticky rice, rice cooked in bamboo tubes, dried green fish, fresh stream fish grilled in bamboo tubes, domestic chicken, pork, rice wine, white wine, and also traditional fabrics, agate threads, white beads, and other traditional jewelry.

Before the ceremony takes place, everyone, from the elderly to children, must wear traditional Co Tu clothing. In addition, gongs and drums are precious cultural heritage, considered the most sacred objects, capable of helping people communicate directly with the gods and spirits…

A dance performed during the harvest festival of the Co Tu people in Phu Loc district.

According to village elder Ho A Ray in A Xang hamlet, Thuong Long commune (Phu Loc district), the New Rice Festival has been maintained from ancient times to the present day in communes where the Co Tu ethnic group lives. During the festival, many typical cultural features of the Co Tu people are showcased, such as the traditional Tung Tung Da Da dance and gong performances. The New Rice Festival is a very important ritual in the lives of the Co Tu people, expressing their reverence for the deities who have protected them, brought them stable lives, favorable weather, and bountiful harvests.

Through the festival, the Co Tu people also convey the message of working together to preserve and maintain their cultural identity within the community and promote the unique cultural features of the highland people, contributing to introducing and attracting tourists to experience them.

According to Mr. Le Nhu Suu, Head of the Culture and Information Department of Phu Loc district, implementing the project on "Preserving and promoting the fine traditional cultural values ​​of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development," the district has carried out many activities in recent times, such as focusing on surveying and researching typical traditional festivals in villages to exploit and build products to serve tourism development. The district has prioritized the preservation of traditional festivals at risk of disappearing and typical festivals to exploit and build tourism products in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

In addition, the locality also organized the construction of a cultural preservation model for the Co Tu people, with contents such as: surveying, investigating, statistically collecting information to build the model; hiring research experts and consultants to support research and model development; organizing training on methods and skills for building and replicating the models; conducting experiments with the models and disseminating information and promoting them... Through this, artisans, village elders, influential people and the Co Tu ethnic people, as well as folk art clubs and groups in villages, units, households, and tourism businesses, can access and benefit from these activities.

According to Mr. Le Nhu Suu, at the end of 2024, the People's Committee of Phu Loc district, in coordination with the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts in Hue, organized a meeting to gather opinions from delegates on the history of the intangible cultural heritage of the New Rice Festival and agreed on a name in the Co Tu language: "Bhuoih Cha Ha ro To me".

The Hue City Department of Culture and Sports announced that the dossier is in the final stages of completion and will then be submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for consideration and inclusion in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. According to researchers, the creation of a dossier for national-level registration of the festival will, on the one hand, affirm the values ​​of the New Rice Festival within the cultural heritage landscape of Vietnam's ethnic groups; on the other hand, awaken the pride of the Co Tu people in their heritage, contributing to strongly promoting its preservation with the joint efforts of the entire community.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Tieu-diem-van-hoa/doc-dao-le-hoi-mung-lua-moi-cua-dong-bao-co-tu-i771198/