The Mong people celebrate Tet

The Mong celebrate their Tet holiday one month before that of the Kinh, the largest ethnic group in Vietnam. Instead of the Kinh’s Banh Chung (square shaped sticky rice cake), they make Banh Day (a smaller, hand-size sticky rice cake).  

For the Mong, the round cake symbolizes the moon and the sun that they believe gave birth to humans and all the other living things on Earth.

If you travel to ethnic Mong hamlets and villages a few days before the festival, you will see strong young men grinding sticky rice that was grown in the most fertile soil.

Every family grinds and cooks between 5-10kg of rice to make enough Banh Day for the one-month New Year holiday. The grinding process requires considerable skills to ensure the cake will have the right texture and taste delicious.   

The sticky rice dough is piled on a large flat basket, rolled into small balls, then flattened into 14-cm diameter cakes and wrapped in two pieces of fresh banana leaves.

The banana leaves and basket must be thoroughly cleaned to ensure the cake does not spoil or grow mouldy and still retains the special fragrance of highland rice throughout the month long celebration.     

“According to our traditional custom, Banh Day is a treat for visitors when they step into our house during the New Year days,” says Vang A Nha, Vice Chairman of the Hang Kia Commune People’s Committee.

You can discover the intricacies of the Mong’s New Year celebrations if you stop at one of their villages this time of year. You may even have the chance to sit besides a charcoal fireplace and enjoy their round, uncoloured, unsalted sticky rice cakes – the Mong people’s favourite New Year treat.