New Year’s Eve welcomes the new rice soul of Xa Pho people in Sapa Vietnam with its own identity of mountainous people. Even the family celebrates Tet with new rice, all the old rice of the family is taken away, the house is cleaned with the meaning of welcoming the new rice soul throughout the house, replacing the old crop. The family will send healthy, beautiful women, usually the wife or daughter of the owner, to cut the new rice. The people chosen to cut rice will get up earlier than usual, put on new clothes and then quietly go to the fields and fields to cut rice, they abstain from letting others see, especially abstaining from meeting people in the village on the way. If you see that people in the same village often have to avoid, because cutting rice is not simply cutting rice but also a ritual to welcome the spirit of rice home, so the work must take place in secret.
When cutting rice in Sapa Vietnam, the woman must face the east, where there is sunrise to symbolize fertility for the next season. The next morning, they will bring the new rice down to pound it into rice to cook rice for ancestors. The offerings in the new rice ceremony are usually presented in two trays, one is placed near the main entrance and the other is placed on the outdoor floor. On the ancestral house there is 1 pack of sticky rice, 1 plate of chicken, 1 pack of sand, 1 pack of banana flowers, 1 pack of green eggplant. The offering wine is usually stored in bamboo tubes and the drinking cups are displayed on the ceremony trays, which are usually made of fresh bamboo tubes.
In the new rice offering ceremony in Sapa Vietnam, 2 rolls of thread are indispensable to tie into the hands of family members, with the meaning of praying for good luck, health, cohesion, and celebrating Tet with the family. New clothes, silver rings, family jewelry are displayed near the ceremony tray. During the holiday meal, the host will pour wine 3 times, everyone has to drink the cup three times to make “li” and then freely invite and wish each other. Finally, everyone held hands and danced around the fire, then raised a cup of wine together, wishing the family luck, warmth and happiness.
