(VOVWORLD) - The Ok Om Bok Festival – Ngo Junk Race will be held in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang from Saturday to next Monday. Some months before the festival, pagodas encouraged Buddhist followers and young mento train for the junk race. This is an important community event to preserve this unique cultural and sport festival and strengthen community bonds.

(VOVWORLD) - The new rice celebration is one of the most important rituals of the Co Tu ethnic minority to show their gratitude to heaven and earth for giving them good weather and bumper crops. The ritual is organized every year following the harvest.

(VOVWORLD) - The Lu ethnic group in Lai Chau province, which has fewer than 10,000 people, has retained its unique culture. The local authorities have helped the group preserve their stilt houses, costumes, festivals, and folk songs.

(VOVWORLD) - The Co Tu ethnic group has many special rituals and customs, including a thanksgiving ceremony for the parents of one’s wife. The ceremony honors family morality and demonstrates the son-in-law’s filial piety toward his wife’s family.

(VOVWORLD) - The Kho Mu ethnic minority group in Lai Chau province owns a treasure of unique culture, traditions, and customs. They hold their traditional New Rice Welcome Ritual, known as the Ma Ma Me festival, annually to express their gratitude to their ancestors and gods for blessing them with bumper crops, wealth, and a happy life.

(VOVWORLD) - Dak Lak province has been enhancing activities to preserve the culture ofthe Central Highlands’ indigenous groups. Besides classes on gong music and folk singing and dancing, Dak Lak has just opened classes for villagers on epic and rhyme performance.

(VOVWORLD) - Rice has always been part of the life of the Van Kieu on the Truong Son mountain range in Quang Tri province. Because their life depends on the terraced rice fields they’ve built in difficult mountain terrain, they always pray for a sufficient harvest. Their New Rice ceremony conveys their wish for the deities to bless them with a good harvest and greater prosperity.

(VOVWORLD) - To every Vietnamese, President Ho Chi Minh was a great leader and beloved father, who dedicated his life to the cause of national liberation and unification. To show respect, gratitude, and remembrance of President Ho Chi Minh, ethnic people in many localities, including Quang Nam province, take the surname Ho.

(VOVWORLD) - Brocade weaving retains the traditional cultural characteristics of the Co Tu ethnic people. The craft took shape since the Co Tu discovered the cotton tree (Kpay) originally growing in the forest, brought it back to grow on the mountain fields, and widely popularized it.

(VOVWORLD) - Tung tung da dá is a traditional community dance of the Co Tu ethnic minority. The beautiful dance shows a harmony between men and women, symbolizing yin and yang in the universe. All villagers make a circle and dance anti-clockwise to the background sound of upbeat drums and gongs echoing in the majestic Truong Son mountain range.