The rice cooking contest, which falls on the eighth day of the first lunar month, aims to pay tribute to General Phan Tay Nhac, a general in the Hung Kings’ era with meritorious services to the national construction.

People cheer when a team make fire successfully, in preparation for cooking rice.

The ancient Thi Cam village had four hamlets, and each of them sent a team to join the contest. Before the contest, the teams prepare items such as pestle, mortar, straw and pot. Each team was given 1kg of rice to cook.

The main parts of the contest include crushing rice, blowing fires, taking water and cooking rice.

The contest has a very special "procedure" that when the rice pot runs out of water, the teams will hide the rice pot in piles of straw, that are still smouldering, in the communal house’s yard. The judges will go to "find" the rice pots after a week of incense since the rice has run out of water. The better the team hides, the better the rice will be.

After the contest ends, the rice portions were offered to God and scored. The organisers will present the first prize to the team with the best rice cooker.

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Source: NDO