Before the banana flower festival, participating families bring offerings to the host family, including rice, chicken, wine, 3 grilled birds, fermented fish sauce, chili salt, etc. When the dishes are finished, the host arranges them all on a rattan tray and places them in rows in order on the land at the head of the village where the festival is held. Before the host performs the ceremony, the families light incense at their offering trays and pray: "Thanks to the ancestors, heaven and earth's protection, helping descendants know how to make rice grains to feed people, today, the village organizes the banana flower festival, the family prepares a tray of food and places it in the middle of the sacred land at the head of the village, inviting ancestors, earth gods, forest gods, stream gods, etc. to witness the host's heart towards the gods and the deceased." When the incense burns out, the host bows, asks permission to burn votive papers, and signals the families to stop the ceremony. The dishes are divided into two trays, one for men, relatives, male guests and one for women.
After eating and drinking to their heart's content, the head of the association and some young men performed the ritual of planting banana trees in the ceremonial area, around the banana trees were planted various kinds of wild flowers, including red banana flowers symbolizing luck. When all preparations were completed, each pair of young men and women performed the ritual of praying for a good harvest, demonstrating the actions of plowing, harrowing, planting, picking, harvesting rice, hunting... offering new rice and specialties: dried stream fish, dried rat meat, wild bird meat, taro...
During the banana flower festival, Xa Pho families forbid anyone from taking anything out of the house. Families from other villages that have not yet organized the banana flower festival are not invited to attend.
