Ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands have now integrated in the Kinh majority community. Nowadays, many minority groups including the M’nong, Gia Rai, Gie Trieng and Lach celebrate the Lunar New Year festival at the beginning of the year. However, they have their own way of celebrating Tet, much different from the Kinh.
A jar of Ruou Can (wine drunk out of a jar through pipes) still represents Tet for the M’nong and other ethnic groups in the Central Highlands. Very often, every household prepares some jars to ferment Ruou Can for Tet. Ruou Can for Tet is carefully made and the main material is sticky rice. As a jar cannot last for many days, a family cannot finish it at once but have to invite friends and neighbours to share with them. Finger food is often dried wild meat, particularly dried venison and buffalo meat. The drying method is also different from that of the Kinh. Big pieces of meat are put over the fire for fumigation without any spices. Their Tet dishes are very simple in a “taking pot luck” manner. During the Tet festival, they visit their neighbours and wish each other a happy New Year. Their children wear new clothes and play around their village. A fermented Ruou Can jar is put in the middle of the house. Guests and host sit on a sedge mat, talking and drinking wine out of the jar through pipes.
In the Central Highlands, it is cold in spring and Quy flowers (Tithonia diversifolia) bloom on the basaltic soil in Da Lat, Dak Lak and Kon Tum. These flowers blossom from October through Tet. Coffee gardens also bloom in this season. Coffee flowers are white and slightly scented, making the atmosphere warmer.
Nowadays, people in the Central Highlands also enjoy sugar-coated fruits and square sticky rice cakes during Tet as the Kinh do. The festive atmosphere breathes life into villages. The sound of gongs resounds by camp fire through the night. Spring is also a chance for boys and girls to meet. Although the traditional custom of “girl asking for boy’s hand” remains, it is only formalistic because the couple already fall in love with each other before marriage and the procedure is no longer important.
I have visited the Central Highlands for many springs. Sitting on a new sedge mat, drinking Ruou Can wine, eating dried venison or chicken baked in clay and dipped in salt and wild pepper, I have always been full of emotion in the new spring.
Phan Thi Tan
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