In the mountain-ringed commune of Côn Lôn, in Vietnam's northern Tuyên Quang Province, autumn arrives with a distinctive sound: wooden pestles thudding rice in stone mortars. On October 3-4, 2026, the commune stadium hosts the annual cốm pounding festival, a two-day celebration of the Tày people's young green rice flakes and the harvest that produces them.
Cốm — flattened grains of roasted young glutinous rice — is a beloved northern Vietnamese treat, and Côn Lôn is well suited to making it. The area's broad rice fields, backed by mountains, have long supported the local 'Hoa Vàng' glutinous variety, grown here for generations. When the crop begins to ripen, the Tày community holds the festival, also called the Moon Welcoming Festival or Hội Hai. It marks the new harvest, honours the moon and sets the stage for Lunar New Year preparations.
The craftsmanship is the heart of it. Rice stalks are split into bundles, laid on trays woven from fresh bamboo and roasted over a stove, with women turning them constantly so the grains cook evenly. After cooling, the rice is pounded in a mortar — gently, if still warm, so the grains don't clump or crush. The result is bright green cốm with a soft, sweet fragrance, traditionally wrapped in banana or dong leaves to hold its aroma. Fresh cốm then finds its way into sticky rice, cakes and even pork patties.
There's a spiritual side too. The first cốm of the season is offered to ancestors in gratitude, and families pray for good weather, harvests and fortune in the year ahead. Beyond the pounding contests, the programme includes traditional dress, folk performances, sports, a 'Côn Lôn Autumn Colours' art show and a display of local specialities.
For travellers, this is a chance to see a living tradition rather than a staged show. Several communes in Tuyên Quang still hold cốm pounding festivals, and the Tày version in nearby Chiêm Hóa district was added to Vietnam's National Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2024 — a sign of how seriously the region takes it. Côn Lôn sits well off the main tourist trail, so the atmosphere is communal and unvarnished: laughter, competition and the smell of roasting rice filling the October air.
If you're plotting a northern Vietnam trip beyond Hanoi and Hạ Long, timing a visit to early October could land you in the middle of it — and you'll leave with a far better understanding of cốm than any restaurant tasting can give.
