The harvest festival of the Xơ Đăng people.

As a ritual deeply reflecting the beautiful ancient customs associated with farming and gathering, the New Rice Festival is the first festival of the year for the Xơ Đăng people. With many unique community activities, the festival has attracted a large number of people from various ethnic groups from nearby villages, including tourists from all over, to join in the festivities.

The harvest festival symbolizes a prayer for favorable weather, abundant rain, and a bountiful harvest.

The Xơ Đăng people's New Rice Harvest Festival in the Central Highlands provinces takes place annually, following the autumn-winter upland rice harvest, and is therefore usually held at the beginning of the Gregorian New Year. Due to their reverence for the spirits, the villages organize the festival very carefully, following customs that have been practiced for hundreds of years.

To prepare for the festival, the village elders and villagers choose an auspicious day for the celebration. Families renovate their houses and staircases, and arrange old items around the house in easily visible places so that the Rice God, returning from the fields, will not feel unfamiliar with the surroundings. Xơ Đăng men are responsible for clearing the water source, repairing the water landing, erecting the ceremonial pole, etc. Women are in charge of household chores, preparing sacred items for the ceremony, fetching water from the source, lighting the fire, and so on.

The New Rice Festival is celebrated with two main rituals: a celebration of the new rice harvest at each family's home and at the village's communal house. To hold the ceremony at home, the homeowner and family go to their ripe rice field, use fresh bamboo sticks to mark the threshing locations, and perform religious rituals before threshing. Afterward, they bring the rice back to their storage. Each family carries a large basket of rice home to offer as a sacrifice for the new rice harvest.

After all the families in the village had celebrated the new rice harvest, the village elder gathered the heads of households to announce the community's new rice harvest celebration. Early on the morning of the ceremony, at the communal house, the families in the village closed their doors, no one was allowed to enter or leave, and prepared rice, rice wine in jars, and other cooked food, placing them on racks in the kitchen. The village elder was the first to be allowed to open the doors and go to the communal house, then beat the drum to signal and invite the villagers to attend.

The main rituals performed by the Xơ Đăng people at the communal house include: the water-bringing ceremony to celebrate the new rice harvest; the ritual of splashing water around the rice granary at the source, symbolizing a wish for favorable weather and a bountiful harvest; and the ritual of offering the first meal of the season to the spirits, with the collective contribution of the villagers. After performing the traditional rituals at the communal house, the village elder will eat the new rice and drink blessed wine, and the villagers will take turns drinking the wine and eating the new rice. Then, the village elder will lead everyone from the communal house to visit each family in the village to offer congratulations.

After visiting all the families in the village, the group returned to the communal house. The village elder announced that all the villagers should gather at the communal house to celebrate the new rice harvest. The entire village celebrated by drinking rice wine, singing and dancing traditional songs, playing gongs and drums, and participating in folk games and performances until late at night.

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