TL;DR: The rainy season Tết, called Dế Khù Chà by the Hà Nhì people (also written Jé Khù Chà), is one of the great Tết celebrations of the Hà Nhì, usually held in the fifth or sixth lunar month when the rainy season begins and the new harvest is done. The festival includes a soul-calling ritual, offerings to ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides, pounding bánh dày, raising swings and refraining from work for several days. It is an occasion to thank heaven and earth and the ancestors and to pray for favourable rain and wind, healthy people and thriving livestock and crops.
What is the Dế Khù Chà rainy season festival?
The rainy season festival is one of the major festivals of the Hà Nhì: the Lào Cai newspaper calls it the largest festival of the year, while Báo Văn hóa describes it as one of seven major festivals[2][4]. The press records the festival's name in several ways: Dế Khù Chà, Jé Khù Chà, and in many articles simply Tết mùa mưa[1][2][3][4]. These variations are mostly due to different ways of transcribing the Hà Nhì language into the Vietnamese alphabet, not different festivals.
The Hà Nhì in Vietnam live mainly in Lai Châu, Lào Cai and Điện Biên[2]. In Mường Tè district (before July 2025), Lai Châu province, they live in 28 villages with a population of nearly 9,000, according to records of the Lai Châu Provincial Museum[4]. In Điện Biên province, the Hà Nhì in Sín Thầu commune are one of the communities living in the far western part of the country[3][5].
When does the rainy season festival take place?
The Hà Nhì hold the rainy season festival around the middle of the rainy season, usually falling in the fifth or sixth lunar month each year (Báo Nhân Dân gives around the middle of the sixth month; Báo Văn hóa gives the fifth month in one village and the sixth in another)[1][3][5]. This is when the new crop has just been planted, the rice has begun to form ears, the sown maize is green, and it is also the most leisurely time of the year[1][4].
The Hà Nhì rainy season usually lasts from the 15th day of the fifth lunar month to the 15th day of the seventh lunar month[2]. In the past, the festival often lasted seven days, but today, as life has changed, the duration has been shortened, usually to five days or fewer, depending on the area and village[1]. The Lào Cai newspaper records one place holding it over four days[2].
The opening day also differs between localities. In Mường Tè district (before July 2025), Lai Châu province, people often choose a dragon day in the month[1]. In some other places, people hold the festival on a Pig day or Dragon day[2].
Why do the Hà Nhì hold the rainy season festival?
According to Hà Nhì beliefs, the rainy season is when river and water deities are active, and thunder, lightning, erosion and flash floods cause the souls of people, livestock and crops to become frightened and lost[2]. This makes people prone to illness and makes it hard for crops and livestock to thrive[2].
Therefore, once a year, at the hottest time of summer, the Hà Nhì hold the rainy season festival to ask the rain and water deities to return the souls they have taken, so that people may be healthy, livestock and crops may regain vitality, and harvests may be bountiful[2]. The festival is also an occasion to thank ancestors and heaven and earth for favourable rain and wind, and to pray for the next crop to flourish[1].
In Sín Thầu commune, Điện Biên province, the rainy season festival is also understood as the festival marking the end of the dry season and the arrival of the rains, a festival of gratitude to heaven, earth and ancestors[3]. People offer the deities and ancestors their purest products, praying for favourable rain and wind, bountiful harvests, a peaceful village, and healthy descendants[3].
How is the soul-calling rite performed during the rainy season festival?
The soul-calling rite is the core of the rainy season festival. The ritual master is the household head, or a person with an important role in the community such as the village elder, village chief, or clan head[2][5]. Offerings include two live chickens, a bowl of tea, an egg, a bowl of plain water, a bottle of wine, and some items tied to daily life such as bracelets, scarves, shirts and trousers[2].
The offerings are arranged on a tray, with the live chicken placed beside the tray[2]. Usually the wife or mother of the household carries the offerings outside the gate, or they may choose a stream bank or the path into the house to perform the soul-calling rite[2]. After the outdoor offering, the ritual master brings all the offerings inside to pray[2].
After the soul-calling rite, families make offerings to ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides[2]. The household head kills the two chickens and arranges an offering tray with two bowls of porridge, two bowls of shredded boiled chicken, boiled chicken liver, and two cups of wine placed before the ancestor altar[2]. For the Hà Nhì, ancestor worship is not required to be performed by the husband or wife: if the man is busy and cannot return home on the festival day, the woman will perform the worship[2].
Bánh dày and essential offerings
On the first festival day, people often wake very early to make bánh dày, slaughter a pig for offerings to ancestors and heaven and earth[1]. Pork and bánh dày are two of the most important offerings that cannot be omitted[1].
In some localities, bánh dày is shaped into three pieces to offer to ancestors[2]. For the Hà Nhì, offering bánh dày expresses the respect, gratitude and filial piety of descendants toward their parents and ancestors[2]. The cake is seen as the fruit of the family's hard work during the year, and also as a delicious offering to invite ancestors to witness the household's sincerity[2].
In Sín Thầu commune, the Dế Khù Chà offering tray is simple yet warm, with glutinous rice, chicken, pork and corn wine[3].
The swing and folk games
Before the day of preparing the offering, there is a ceremony to erect the swing[2]. This is a long-standing custom of the Hà Nhì in the northwestern highlands[2]. The game considered indispensable on this occasion is the swinging game[1].
The Hà Nhì believe that playing on the swing is a form of atonement for the sins they have committed in the preceding period, specifically hunting and killing animals in the forest[1]. Every animal has a soul, so a certain punishment is needed to redress the souls of those animals, so that they no longer come back to harm the village[1].
Besides the swing, games during the rainy season festival are quite diverse: walking on stilts, spinning tops, antiphonal singing, swinging, and rotating seesaws[1].
What is avoided during the festival days?
According to the Lào Cai newspaper, the rainy season festival is held over four days, which are also four days of taboos. Everyone in the family does not go to work but only plays, eats, drinks and sings joyfully[2].
To ensure a fully happy new year, the Hà Nhì avoid arguing, using foul language, and stealing[2]. A unique cultural feature of the rainy season festival and other Hà Nhì rituals is that no incense is burned[2].
The Hà Nhì believe that if a family welcomes many relatives and friends, that year will bring much good luck[2]. The festival is also an occasion for everyone in the village to visit and congratulate one another[1]. When visiting any house in the village to offer New Year wishes, guests are welcomed by the host with trays full of wine, meat and products made by the family itself[1][3].
Farewell rite and differences between localities
Before the festival ends, all households slaughter a chicken for a farewell rite[1]. In this rite, people once again ask the supreme being for favourable rain and wind, and for crops and livestock free of pests and disease[1].
There are significant differences between localities in how the festival is organised. According to the Lào Cai newspaper, the rainy season festival is held within the family, following traditional rites[2]. In Sín Thầu commune, Điện Biên province, the rainy season festival is also linked to a community festival with cultural and tourism activities[3]. The Khô Già Già festival of the Black Hà Nhì in Bát Xát, Lào Cai province, is a separate festival, usually held in the sixth lunar month and lasting three days, with a buffalo sacrifice; the reports do not call it the rainy season festival or Dế Khù Chà, so this article does not merge the two[6][7].
In Ka Lăng, formerly Mường Tè district, Lai Châu province, the rainy season festival is also called Dế Khù Chà, one of the seven major festivals of the year according to the traditional customs of the Hà Nhì[4]. The rituals during the rainy season festival express the characteristic belief in agricultural deities, rain deities and water deities, praying for bountiful harvests, thriving livestock, healthy people and a prosperous life[4].
How has the rainy season festival changed today?
Today, as people's lives have improved, the Jé Khù Chà festival has become more of a festive event[2]. However, it still retains unique traditional cultural beauty, creating the distinctive colour of the Hà Nhì people[2].
In Sín Thầu commune, Điện Biên province, according to the plan, the 2026 Rainy Season Festival cultural event will be held simultaneously in villages with Hà Nhì residents from 1 to 7 August, to preserve and promote traditional cultural identity, strengthen national unity, and promote community tourism potential[3]. The Sín Thầu commune People's Committee organising the festival simultaneously, and allowing villages to choose suitable dates according to actual conditions, both ensures the traditional rites are kept intact and avoids affecting people's production and daily life[3].
In Lai Châu province, the Provincial Museum organised a thematic exhibition on Hà Nhì ethnic cultural heritage linked to the 2025 rainy season festival in Mé Gióng village, Ka Lăng commune[4]. This activity contributes to preserving and promoting the good traditional cultural values of the Hà Nhì people[4].
The rainy season festival is a unique spiritual product of the Hà Nhì, contributing a precious asset to Vietnam's ethnic cultural heritage, and expressing a harmonious attitude between people and nature[4]. It is also an occasion for family reunion and exchanging farming experience[4].
