At every one of the 12 annual Akha ceremonies a thanksgiving is made to all of one's parents. Missionaries and other western people asign the name "Ancestor Worship" to this as a patronizing term, but no one is worshiping their ancestors any more than christians preach "honor your father and mother".

The thanks giving differs for each ceremony through out the year.

In some cases a chicken is carefully killed, cleaned, cut up in a special order and eaten. Small parts of the chicken are set aside as a memory to those who have gone before. From this little pieces of the meat and rice are given to guests who come to the house ;;so each can ;;share the occasion.

The bamboo rice box can be found on the women's side of any traditional house. It contains ceremonial rice placed in it each year at the new rice harvest, three heads of rice. They are kept there till the rice of the next year.

Small containers of dry rice are prepared each year, and one of these is opened up for each ceremony, the ingredients making a kind of rice liquor, which is the seal for any ceremony. Water is added to the contents after the container is opened, and that "whiskey" is used in the ceremonies.

A chicken is sprinkled with water, three times in three places, feet, wings and head, before being killed by striking it with a stick on the head, careful never to hit the eyes.

For some ceremonies the wings and feet are saved, not eaten, placed over the fire for the moment on the shelf above it.

The chicken is cleaned carefully and then cut up by a special means.

Some Akha clan members set aside five pieces, very small of each part of the chicken, and some set aside only three pieces, such as a piece of the breast, liver and leg.

Two kinds of rice are set aside, a glass of tea with ginger, a glass of "whiskey" and a bowl with the small pieces of meat. The guests will be given tiny pieces of this meat and rice. After one or two days the ceremonial containers are removed and cleaned.

Missionaries have created very angry fights in villages by saying that the rice box and the ceremonies worship the devil and take them into the road and burn them as evil.  These are incredibly stupid people, who destroy something they are not educated enough to understand.