KIGALI, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rwandans on Friday marked their annual national "Thanksgiving Day" festival, locally known as Umuganura.

The festival, celebrated every first Friday of the month of August, was a cultural event marked by Rwandans at the beginning of every harvest to celebrate achievements of crop harvest both at the national and family level.

The celebrations featured entertainments with traditional recipes, and preparation and sharing of traditional foods.

Part of the celebrations was donation of assorted food items to families deemed to have had poor harvests in the previous season.

The celebrations also took place in villages as people return to their respective villages for the festival.

Speaking in Nyanza in the Southern Province, Rwandan Minister of Culture Julienne Uwacu said the celebrations should motivate Rwandans to work harder to double their achievements next year.

With changing times the event is not only about crop harvest but also achievements in varied aspects, said the minister.

Friday's celebrations were preceded by a cultural night festival on Thursday evening that is aimed at promoting Nyanza as a travel destination and to cultivate cultural values among Rwandans. It showcases lifestyles of Rwanda's ancestors through poetry, traditional games, dance and drama.

This year's Umuganura was combined with tenth edition of a pan-African dance festival known by its French acronym as FESPAD which was concluded on Thursday in Nyanza.