The Cong group has around 1,000 people living mainly in Dien Bien province. At the end of the year they are cheerfully organizing a flower festival to celebrate a bumper crop and welcome a new year of good luck and happiness.

Cong people pick cockscomb flowers in the early morning

When cockscomb blossoms cover the hillsides and valleys, Cong people go to the fields to harvest rice. 

After crops are stockpiled in their houses, they take a rest with a Flower Festival, their most important event of the year. They celebrate the year’s outcome, express gratitude toward genies and their ancestors, and pray for another bumper crop and prosperity. 

The offerings are what they take from nature or produce. On the altar they place farm tools that helped them during production. Red and yellow cockscomb flowers are an indispensible offering, because the Cong consider the flowers a symbol of good luck.

They decorate their houses with cockscomb blossoms

Na Van Phanh, a Cong shaman in Dien Bien province, said, “At the annual Flower Festival, the offering should include a pair of squirrels, fish, taro, and fruits. We pray for prosperity, good health, and productive animals. After the ritual the villagers drink wine and have a meal together.”

The Flower Festival of the Cong has always attracted plenty of visitors from other groups. Luong Thi Dai, a visitor, said, “This is the first time I have attended a Flower Festival of the Cong. I’m glad to know many traditions of the Cong such as the rituals, costumes, and lifestyle.”

Cockscomb flower is part of the offering

Pham Duc Long attended a Flower Festival of the Cong in Pung Bon hamlet, Dien Bien province, for the first time. He said, "I live in Dien Bien province but this is the first time I attend a Flower Festival of the Cong. It’s unique and fantastic. I’ll come here again next year.”

Dien Bien province has invested in improving the socio-economy and organizing cultural exchange to foster relationships among ethnic groups. Cong’s Flower Festival this year has been opened to 19 ethnic groups in northwestern provinces to help tighten their fellowship.

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