Bringing the rice spirit home

For the Xe Dang people, the rice god is an important deity, respected by the villagers. The villagers believe that each favorable harvest season and bountiful rice harvest on the fields is a gift from the god.

On the contrary, a bad harvest is the result of the rice god punishing and blaming the villagers. After each harvest, the Xe Dang people hold a festival to celebrate the new rice, worship the gods and welcome the spirit of the rice god.

Before the harvest, the Xe Dang people in Nam Tra My hold a ceremony to celebrate the new rice, first to thank the forest and mountain gods, then to share the first grain of rice of the season for the whole village to enjoy and celebrate.

During the new rice celebration, everyone is allowed to participate from beginning to end of the ceremony. Men worship the gods, women thresh rice, men slaughter pigs, women pound rice. They are drunk on wine, in the steam filled with the aroma of new rice.