New Rice Harvest Festival & Thanksgiving to Goddess Yang Sri

Schedule: 15 Tháng 11 – 18 Tháng 11, 2026 | Location: Vietnam

The New Rice Harvest Festival (celebrated as Et Dong by the Ba Na, Ho Nga Moi by the Gia Rai, and Hma Ngat by the Ede) is the most ancient and sacred agricultural milestone across the upland farming calendar of Central Highland indigenous communities. Occurring around November and December when upland rice terraces ripen into a sea of golden grains hauled into elevated village granaries, this joyous celebration offers profound thanksgiving to the Rice Goddess (Yang Sri), Rain Spirits, and Mountain Gods for bountiful harvests, peaceful weather, and perpetual nourishment. The rituals commence at dawn when village patriarchs lead the solemn invocation to escort the "Soul of the Rice" from mountain swiddens back to communal granaries. Sacred sacrificial offerings—the finest jar of Can wine, a prized farm pig or rooster, steaming upland sticky rice, and golden seedheads of the first harvest—are arranged around the ceremonial sacred bamboo pole (cây nêu) erected proudly in front of the Nha Rong communal house. The venerable village elder pours libations upon the granary posts, praying that the grains multiply eternally and ward off natural catastrophes. Following the sacred blessings, jubilant community festivities erupt in an outpouring of hospitality lasting through the night. The entire village gathers around the central bonfire as polyphonic bronze gong cadences summon young and old into the hypnotic circular Xoang dance, feasting on freshly steamed new rice, open-fire roasted meats, and passing earthenware jars of honeyed herbal wine. The New Rice Festival stands as a glorious tribute to ancestral gratitude, communal solidarity, and highland optimism in the lap of majestic nature.