Spring is considered the season of festivals for ethnic minority people. Each ethnic group has its own festivals characterizing its customs, beliefs and farming practice. Vietnam Law and Legal Forum introduces some typical spring festivals across the country.

Spring in Vietnam begins with the traditional Tet which has been for thousands of years now celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Lunar Year, the ancient agricultural calendar observed by most Asian countries.

Like most other nations in Asia, the Vietnamese welcome the New Year according to the lunar calendar. Tet Nguyen Dan (the lunar New Year Day) has long become a great festival of the national community in Vietnam. The buying of votive offerings and the decoration of ancestral altars during the traditional New Year days are closely connected with the rituals of worship practiced by the Vietnamese towards their ancestors.

The Dao, a small iTay-Thai language group living in the northern mountainous part of the country, celebrate their village festival five times a year. The Dao’s village festival, devoted to the rulers of heaven and earth, Ban Vuong (the forefather of the Dao) and the village’s tutelary god, seeks their support for peace and prosperity for the village. 

Ta Thi Tam, M.A. Institute of Anthropology Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences The worship of gods and goddesses, tutelary deities, and family ancestors plays a very important role in the spiritual life of the Dao Do (Red Dao), one of the Dao’s seven subgroups living mostly in the northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Cao Bang.

The Pa Then, a Hmong-Dao language group, resides in lower districts of the northern mountainous provinces of Ha Giang and Tuyen Quang. Pa Then group has eight main family names, including Sinh, Phu, Tai, Lu, Tau, Lan, Van and Hung. Pa Then people believe in polytheism and worship ancestors. Every family has an ancestral altar set up in the middle compartment - the most solemn place of the house, and another altar erected next to but below the ancestral altar to the left for family members who die before reaching the age of 36.

A thread tying ritual, called hang van or et van, is an age-old practice of the Thai in the northwestern mountainous region of Vietnam and western parts of Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Thanh Hoa provinces, who believe a sick person can get well again after praying the deities of muong troi, the heaven, and having his wandering souls returned to the body through tying a thread around his wrist.

The Lo Lo, a Tibeto-Burmese language group, is also called O Man, Lu Loc Man, La La, Qua La, Di Nhan, Di Gia or Lac To. The group’s official name Lo Lo has been used in Vietnam since 1979. The Lo Lo group is divided into two sub-groups, namely Lo Lo Hoa and Lo Hoa Den. Today, almost all Lo Lo people reside in upland districts of Ha Giang, Cao Bang and Lai Chau border provinces.

The Hmong Xanh, “blue” Hmong, is one of four sub-groups of Hmong people living mostly in Van Ban district of the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.

Located on the left bank of the Red River and about 13 kilometers to the southeast of the capital city, Bat Trang ceramics village in Gia Lam rural district of Hanoi has become one of the country’s famous tourist destinations for its well-known pottery and porcelain products.