Unique new rice festival of the Co Tu people

The “New Rice Festival” is an important ritual in the life of the Co Tu people in Nam Dong district (now Phu Loc district, Hue city) to express gratitude to the gods who have protected the people, brought a stable life, favorable weather and good crops to the village...

Currently, this festival is being prepared to submit to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) for inclusion in the list of national intangible cultural heritage.

In the Co Tu ethnic community, there are many unique cultural festivals, of which the new rice festival is a very important ritual in the life of the Co Tu people in Nam Dong district (now Phu Loc district). At the end of 2024, the Department of Culture and Information (VH-TT) of Phu Loc district successfully collected and restored the original new rice festival of the Co Tu people, and at the same time had solutions to promote this festival and develop attractive tourist destinations in the mountainous areas of the district. The new rice festival recreates the scene of Co Tu girls harvesting rice early in the morning, when the sun has not yet woken up. With skillful, gentle hands, along with their meticulousness, the village girls have harvested fertile, golden, ripe rice grains, reflecting a bountiful harvest of the villagers.

At the festival space in the communal house of the village, everyone from old to young wears traditional costumes to participate. The village elders and prestigious people in the village are invited as guests to attend the festival of their village. Production tools are brought into the house to report to the gods and ancestors about the results of the past crop production. Young men hunt together to find prey to present on the offering tray... The offering tray to celebrate the new rice of the Co Tu people often has offerings: sticky rice, bamboo-tube grilled sticky rice, dried green fish, grilled fresh stream fish, home-made chicken, pig, rice wine, white wine, in addition to zèng panels, agate threads, white beads and other traditional jewelry.

Before the ceremony, everyone, from the elderly to children, must wear traditional Co Tu costumes. In addition, gongs are precious cultural heritages, considered the most sacred objects, which can help people communicate directly with gods and the Giangs...

Dance in the new rice festival of the Co Tu people, Phu Loc district.

Village elder Ho A Ray in A Xang hamlet, Thuong Long commune (Phu Loc district) said that the new rice festival has been maintained from ancient times to the present in communes where the Co Tu people live. During the new rice festival, many typical cultural identities of the Co Tu people are performed such as: traditional tung tung da da dance, gong performance... The new rice festival is a very important ritual in the life of the Co Tu people, showing respect for the gods who have protected and brought a stable life, favorable weather and good crops to the village.

Through the festival, the Co Tu people also send a message of joining hands to preserve and maintain cultural identity in the community and promote the unique culture of the highland people, contributing to introducing and attracting tourists to experience.

Mr. Le Nhu Suu, Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Phu Loc district, said that implementing the project on "Preserving and promoting the fine traditional cultural values ​​of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development", the district has recently carried out many activities such as paying attention to surveying and researching typical traditional festivals in villages and hamlets to exploit and build products for tourism development. The district has prioritized preserving traditional festivals at risk of fading away and typical festivals to exploit and build tourism products in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

In addition, the locality also organizes the construction of a model to preserve the culture of the Co Tu people, with the following contents: survey, investigation, statistics, information collection to build a model; hire research experts, consultants to support research and model building; organize training on methods and skills to build and replicate models; organize experiments on models and information to propagate and promote... Thereby, artisans, village elders, prestigious people and Co Tu ethnic people as well as folk art clubs and teams in villages, hamlets, units, business households, tourism enterprises can access and benefit...

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

The Department of Culture and Sports of Hue City said that the dossier is in the final stage and will then be submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for consideration and registration in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. According to researchers, the establishment of a dossier to register the festival at the national level, on the one hand, affirms the values ​​of the new rice festival in the picture of cultural heritage of Vietnamese ethnic groups; on the other hand, it awakens the pride of the Co Tu ethnic group in the heritage they possess, contributing to strongly promoting conservation with the joint efforts of the whole community.

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