New Rice Festival (Xinmijie) of Jingpo Ethnic Minority

On the eve of the festival, hosts begin preparations. They carry baskets adorned with fresh flowers and bring home bundles of ripe glutinous rice, placing them prominently in the main hall. They warmly invite neighbors and friends to join them the following day. On the festival day itself, people of all ages happily gather at the host’s home. The host welcomes guests with water and wine.

After exchanging greetings, preparations for the festival meal commence. Women and young girls fry grains, pound glutinous rice, make flatbreads, boil new rice, and gather wild vegetables from the mountains. Young men joyfully sing as they fish in the river. According to Jingpo tradition, chickens and pigs cannot be slaughtered on this day.

Before the feast begins, the host performs a prayer ceremony. They arrange flatbreads, pounded rice, water and wine, dried fish, and dried rats in a propitious order, expressing wishes to the spirits for peace and prosperity for humans and livestock, favorable weather, and the prevention of disasters. If their wishes are fulfilled, they promise to sacrifice a cow in the future.

During the New Rice Festival ceremony, respected elders narrate the origins of the grains. People enjoy drinking, laughing, and discussing agricultural practices such as the appropriate timing for planting, techniques for irrigating fields, skills for transplanting seedlings, methods and timing for dryland sowing, land clearing designs, and crop rotation knowledge. The New Rice Festival is a holiday celebrating harvest and promoting the exchange of agricultural techniques.