(VOVWORLD) - Spring is the season of festivals across Vietnam. For ethnic groups in mountain regions, spring festivals are opportunities to relax and pray for a good new year. Each ethnic group in Vietnam observes its traditional festivals with unique cultural and spiritual features. In the northwestern region the first and second lunar month sees the Long Tong or Going to the field Festival of the Tay and Nung, the Peace Praying Ritual of the Thai and Muong, and the Gau Tao Festival of the Mong. Nguyen Ban, a cultural official in Ha Giang province, says:

(VOVWORLD) -The earthen houses with mossy roofs of the Black Ha Nhi in Y Ty district, Lao Cai province, look like mushrooms in the clouds. When sunshine banishes the clouds, the earthen houses appear on the mountainside as in a fairy land. VOV introduces the uniqueness of the Black Ha Nhi’s architecture.

(VOVWORLD) - The wood stove has an important position in the life and culture of the Vietnamese people as it provides light, cooks food, and warms up the house. The Tay in Binh Lieu district, Quang Ninh province, show their respect for the wood stove by worshiping the Kitchen Genie who chases away evil spirits and wild animals and blesses them with good luck and prosperity.

(VOVWORLD) -Each ethnic group in Vietnam has typical customs to welcome the New Year, which is called Tet in Vietnamese. Their uniqueness helps make Vietnam’s cultural diversity.

(VOVWORLD) -Making Chung cake for the Lunar New Year is an aged-old tradition of Vietnamese people. Chung cakes are meaningful gifts and an indispensible offering on the ancestral altars during Vietnam’s biggest festival of the year.

(VOVWORLD) -The Thai in Vietnam’s northwestern region pray for the souls of sick people, new born babies, people traveling far from home, and new daughters-in-law to wish them good health, safety, and happiness. The prayer inspires these persons to overcome challenges in their lives.

(VOVWORLD) -Cao Phong district is the cradle of the Muong Thang, one of 4 Muong branches in Hoa Binh province. Hoa Binh authorities have worked with local people to preserve the traditional culture of the Muong Thang.

(VOVWORLD) -At the end of the year when rice ripens in terraced fields and the weather turn cold, people of the Pako, Ta Oi, and Co Tu ethnic groups celebrate the Aza New Year Festival, or New Rice Festival, to thank their genies for blessing them with a bumper crop.

(VOVWORLD) -The Cong group has around 1,000 people living mainly in Dien Bien province. At the end of the year they are cheerfully organizing a flower festival to celebrate a bumper crop and welcome a new year of good luck and happiness.

(VOVWORLD) -Playing the Khen panpipe and dancing is a custom of the Mong. The Khen panpipe is a musical instrument that expresses deep feelings and connects this life to the spiritual world.