The scenery of Nam Nghep in spring.

Tet is a time when people don't have to worry about food, clothing, or firewood, so everyone can celebrate Tet in the truest sense, meeting each other and fully experiencing the community atmosphere with customs deeply ingrained in every household.

From the end of the year, when the terraced rice fields have turned a deeper yellow, and the morning mist blankets the slopes of Ta Chi Nhu mountain, Nam Nghep enters a different rhythm of life. It's a time of quiet preparation for Tet (Lunar New Year). During Tet, villagers visit each other, even trekking through forests and mountains to Tram Tau to visit relatives. Some trips involve crossing the entire Ta Chi Nhu forest, taking a full day of walking to maintain close relationships. On these spring journeys, people are unhurried, carrying baskets of corn wine, sticky rice cakes, and stories from their own village to share with others. Upon returning, they bring back countless gifts and stories from elsewhere to recount to their families and villages. The forest trails, therefore, serve as a conduit for communication, memories, and community connection.

The entire organizationfestivalTet (Vietnamese New Year) brings familiar activities: goat fighting, pig catching, stick pushing, sticky rice cake making competitions, or simply, and no less exciting, a contest to see whose pumpkin is the biggest. These are aspects of working life, incorporated into the festival space as a way to honor the work and efforts that people have dedicated themselves to throughout the year. Children also have their own space; girls play pao throwing, boys throw spinning tops. They play for fun, because it's a familiar part of their childhood in the mountainous region.

This year, Tet in Nam Nghep is more joyful as, for the first time, the village has managed to secure sponsors to award prizes for the competitions. These small prizes provide additional motivation and happiness. Importantly, the festive spirit is still preserved, organized by the villagers themselves, revolving around the intrinsic values ​​of the village, without being commercialized or turned into a mere performance.

Mr. Khang A Say, Party Secretary and Head of Nam Nghep village, spoke about Tet (Vietnamese New Year) with the characteristic calmness of a community leader. For him, Tet is an occasion for the whole village to gather, reflect on a year of hard work, and overcome difficulties together. “Throughout the year, the villagers work hard in the fields. During Tet, they must be allowed to have fun and celebrate properly. Only then will the village be strong and the people connected to it,” Mr. Say said.

According to him, organizing the Tet festival also helps future generations understand why our people celebrate Tet for so long. It's a time for the community to strengthen bonds, remind themselves of their roots and customs.

Mr. Khang A Lenh, Deputy Director of the Nam Nghep Cooperative, was directly involved in lobbying and connecting to secure sponsorships for prizes in this year's Tet festival competitions. He understands very well the fine line between creating more motivation and the risk of commercializing the festival. "Whether there are prizes or not, people will still celebrate Tet, but having more prizes makes it more fun, and the children are more excited," he shared. According to him, incorporating sponsorship into the festival is to encourage the spirit and revitalize traditional values ​​in the context of a rapidly changing life.

In Nam Nghep, there are also members from the lowlands who initially came to visit and sightsee, but then, due to a fortunate coincidence, settled down and became long-term members. Among them is Mr. Nguyen Cao Cuong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nam Nghep Cooperative. When he first came to the village, he didn't bring any projects, nor did he intend to develop the economy in this remote mountainous area. Seeing the hardships of the villagers, he helped them sell their agricultural products and find markets for them. The trucks carrying agricultural products to the lowlands, the phone calls connecting them to the market—what started as a spontaneous act of kindness from an acquaintance—gradually became the foundation for the cooperative's formation and development.

But that wasn't all; he also welcomed and connected with many people from other places. To the villagers, he had become like family. During village festivals, from goat fighting and stick pushing to cake-making and other small celebrations during the spring, his presence was always felt – sometimes quietly working behind the scenes organizing things, other times directly helping the villagers set up tables and chairs, construct the grounds, and prepare prizes.

Amidst the characteristic wooden houses of the village, the new home of Thào A Vạng and his wife brings an indescribable sense of pride. Around the house, familiar mountain flowers are planted, blooming just in time for spring. This is how their family contributes to the overall landscape of the village through their care and respect for their living space.

Mr. Vang was also one of the first to change his mindset and embark on the path of community tourism. Recognizing the advantages of the wild apple tree, which has been closely associated with the lives of the H'Mong people for many generations, along with the romantic natural landscape of the village, his family learned about tourism from those who came before them in the village and from neighboring localities. Thao A Vang traveled to Hua Tat (Van Ho), to visit the A Chu homestay of Trang A Chu to learn about the model, how to welcome guests, organize the space, and preserve traditional house styles while still meeting the needs of tourists.

Returning to his village, his family embarked on community tourism, learning as they went, listening to feedback from guests, and adjusting every small detail, from meals and accommodation to the way they told stories about their village. Last year, along with expanding the homestay on the hilltop, he also planted more native herbs, aiming for a new livelihood while preserving the H'Mông people's forest knowledge. Clusters of Angelica sinensis, Polygonum multiflorum, Amomum xanthioides, wild artichokes, etc., were planted under the canopy of wild apple trees, both preserving the greenness of the soil and opening up possibilities for connecting traditional agriculture with experiential tourism.

While Nam Nghep village was still resounding with the sounds of flutes and laughter during the Lunar New Year celebrations, a new wave of activity arrived with a delegation from the Australian Embassy visiting to survey and assess the implementation of development support projects for women and ethnic minorities. Through funding from these projects, the locality is gradually developing a community-based tourism model, focusing on preserving and promoting the indigenous cultural values ​​of the H'Mong people. From traditional rammed-earth houses, linen weaving, and traditional sewing… to festivals and folk games… all are cherished and promoted in the story of preserving and spreading these values.

Along with that, Nam Nghep is also learning to tell its story in the language of nature, such as: promoting the value of biodiversity to organize programs for sightseeing in the forest, trekking, visiting villages, experiencing the flower season, rice season, and the cloud-covered season of Ta Chi Nhu... Each journey contributes to bringing tourists closer to the pristine beauty of the mountains and forests, while helping the local people become more aware of preserving the forest, water sources, and the trails that have been associated with generations.

MAI LU