[In Pictures] Steamed sticky rice festival in ancient village along the Red River

In 2017, the community and local government agreed to organise a festival to honour steamed sticky rice at Phu Gia Communal House on the 8th day of the first lunar month. The festival aims to commemorate the gratitude of the god Khai Nguyen. This is an opportunity for Phu Thuong people, who have established their careers far away, to return and offer their product to the village’s tutelary god and wish for a new year of prosperity and peace.

Loads of steamed sticky rice were brought to the communal yard to prepare for the ceremony.

Dong leaves are also washed and ready to serve tourists.

Every year, villagers hold a sticky rice cooking contest and offer large, beautiful sticky rice trays, crystallised from the essence of heaven and earth, along with human creative talent, to the village's tutelary god with the wish for a new spring of prosperity and peace.

The sticky rice trays are shaped into communal roofs, dikes and vast green lawns, just like the original thousand-year-old village on the Red River. According to the elders, Phu Thuong currently has three artisans and about 600 families making sticky rice and a retail "system" with hundreds of people in the village, bringing the fragrance of Phu Thuong sticky rice to every corner of Hanoi.

Tourists capture moments at the traditional festival of Phu Thuong Village.

"To cook unique sticky rice, trays have been cooked since morning. Each sticky rice tray contains love for the land, humans and traditional crafts of Phu Thuong Village," Ha Huyen shared.

Contest at Phu Thuong traditional sticky rice festival.

Even ordinary sticky rice is decorated and stylised like a blooming flower petal.

Careful hands of artisans with a traditional plate of sticky rice.

The people of Phu Gia Village offered sticky rice and offerings to the village's Thanh Hoang, praying for a peaceful new year and good weather.

A child showed interest in traditional sticky rice from a thousand-year-old village along the Red River.

Capturing beautiful moments in early spring.

A basket of sticky rice in early spring.

Ceremony of offering steamed sticky rice to the Village's Tutelary God.

This year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism officially included the craft of making Phu Thuong steamed sticky rice in the list of national intangible cultural heritages.