PROCESS ESSAY:

        Gia Lai is a remote province in Highland. There are many ethnic minorities so that there are also many customs as well as culture. In Gia Lai, Bana is the most popular ethnic minorities. They live mainly by cultivating rice. Every year, they transplant rice seedling in April and harvest in October of lunar that year. When rice in field begins to ripen, they celebrate the new rice festival. People can understand this festival by the way “New rice” means rice in the beginning of crop. It is a traditional festival of Bana ethnic minority to be glad for the crop this year and pray bumper crop next year.

   Before the main celebration, each family in the village will prepare to worship in their house. First, the woman in this house will prepare a chicken, a tray of roasted rice and a jar of wine. All of these things are put on the big table in the centre of house. Then, the oldest man in family start to pray for healthy children, happy family and he also invites soul of ancestor to join together with everyone in family. After that, everyone will eat. According to traditional custom, to show the respect and grateful for the elder people, the older people eat and drink first. Then, each member in family enjoys the taste of new grain and drink wine together. The sound of laugh and voice of everyone in house make family cosy and happy.

  The next day, the women in the village will harvest rice and prepare for the main celebration. They get up early and carry dosser (a kind of basket which has 2 handles for people to wear on back) to go to the field for threshing rice. In the afternoon, the women come back village with baskets are full of ripen rice and happiness in each face. After that, all people in village gather in Communal House (a kind of house of Bana people, used for big event in this village) to common worship. The children wear new clothes and play outside Communal House when adult prepare for celebration. Each family in the village will contribute a chicken, a tray of roasted cereal and a jar of wine like when worshiping at their house and all of these things are presented along two row of the Communal House. The preparing is quickly completed to begin the celebration in the evening.

   The process of the main celebration is nearly the same as celebration in each house before. First, the village patriarch prays for peace, prosperity for people in village. He represents for village to gives thanks to Gods such as God of fire, God of water, God of tree, ect because of their help for villager to have a bumper crop. Each family also has its own wishes. After praying, people begin to eat and the village patriarch was allowed to eat as well as drink first. Besides similarities, there are some differences between main celebration in Communal House and celebration in each family. The first difference is pile of fire. Before the beginning of celebration, young boys burn a big pile of fire in the empty yard that is in front of Communal House. Bana people think fire is symbol of cosy, so pile of fire is indispensible in any celebration of them. In addition, after eating and drinking, people stand around pile of fire. Boys are striking gong and chink (kinds of instrument made of bronze of Bana people) while girls are singing and dancing. The fun last all night, even to the morning next day.

      Although nowadays, Bana people have no longer one crop per year like before, they still maintain “new rice festival” as a special feature in their customs. It is not only a good way to protect culture of Bana ethnic minority but also occasion for all villagers gather for exchanging relation.