(VOVWORLD) - Performing a new rice ceremony is a very old custom among the ethnic groups who live in Vietnam’s Truong Son mountain range in the Central Highlands. The ceremony acknowledges the primary importance of rice and prays the deities to bless the people with happiness, good weather, and a bumper crop. At the 2019 Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival in Dak Lak province, the new rice ceremony of the M’nong Gar was recreated for the benefit of the tourists.

(VOVWORLD) - UNESCO has recognized the sitting tug-of-war games and rituals at Tran Vu temple on the outskirts of Hanoi as part of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The folk game takes place every year to show people’s respect for deities and express their wishes for a peaceful future.

(VOVWORLD) - The Co Lao, one of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minority groups, has about 3,000 people. The group settled in Vietnam about 200 years ago and now lives mainly in the northern mountainous region.

(VOVWORLD) - The Ede ethnic minority people think that every water resource is managed by a genie. After each harvest and before each new crop, the Ede thank their water genies for blessing them with good weather and lots of luck. This shows their respect for water, the source of life.

(VOVWORLD) - The La Ha ethnic minority lives in Vietnam’s northwestern region where they farm and perform some unique customs and rituals, including a ceremony of new rice worshipping to remind the younger generation to appreciate rice.

(VOVWORLD) - Thousands of years ago, the lithophone emerged as a signature musical instrument of the Central Highlands. Local people call it a stone gong. The sound of the lithophone is sometime as deep as the forest, sometime as gentle as a brook. It can express the feeling of the instrumentalist and the state of their soul.

(VOVWORLD) - A Black Thai woman in Vietnam’s northwestern region ties her hair into a tall bun on top of her head to indicate that she has got married. A ritual is held to comb and tie up her hair before she goes to her husband’s house.

(VOVWORLD) - The Ede ethnic group in the Central Highlands consider the Che, a big jar, a symbol of family wealth and prosperity. A Che full of alcohol is an indispensable item at all worship ceremonies. When they buy, sell, or give a Che away as a present, both the giver and the receiver perform a ritual to inform the family genies and ancestors of the event. It’s a custom of the Mdhur and Blo branches of Ede in Dac Lac province.

(VOVWORLD) - The Jarai people in Gia Lai province have maintained many traditional handicrafts, such as weaving brocade fabric and making musical instruments, bamboo papooses, and pineapple-leaf mats. In recent years, the local women’s union has worked with Jarai artisans to teach young people to make mats in order to preserve this traditional craft.

(VOVWORLD) - The M’Nong have lived in Dac Nong province for a very long time. They have created worship ceremonies to express their hopes and aspirations. Their worship of the village gate prays for good weather, a bumper crop, and food sufficiency.