Umhlanga draws unmarried Zulu girls and young women, organised by region, to gather at the royal residence, traditionally Enyokeni or another royal homestead, for several days each late summer. Early in the gathering the participants travel to a riverbed to cut a long reed each, which they carry back uncut and unbroken; an unbroken reed is read as a sign of the bearer's virginity, and a reed that breaks in the carrying is understood, in the ceremony's own terms, to say something about the girl who carried it. The gathered reeds are presented to the king in a mass procession and dance, accompanied by singing, and are afterward used to reinforce the fencing (also called uhlanga) around the royal enclosure, so the gift is not only symbolic but literally put to use.
The ceremony has roots in earlier Zulu first-fruits and harvest-season gatherings, such as umkhosi rites tied to the agricultural year, in which the king's ceremonial role and the community's seasonal life were bound together. Regional and family versions of the reed rite, smaller and led by a local chief rather than the king, are also held outside the main royal event, so umhlanga exists both as an intimate community ceremony and as the large national spectacle it is now best known for.