The Hmong New Year
`The Hmong New Year is a cultural celebration that occurs annually, in the months of November and December, in areas where large Hmong population exists. In this speech, I am going to share the three main components that make up the celebration of Hmong New Year, such as the culture of the food, tradition clothes, and the activities that are involved. I. There are several activities that are involved at Hmong New Years. A. The game of love “Pov pob,” or ball toss, involves lines or groups of men and women tossing a ball. 1. The ball is thrown so that the other player can catch it with one hand.
If the throw is good and the other player drops or misses the ball, an ornament or a piece of silver or a belt from his or her costume is given to the opposite player in the pair. Ornaments are recovered by singing traditional courting songs to the opposite player. 2. Girls can toss the ball with other girls or boys, but boys cannot toss the ball with boys. It is also taboo to toss the ball to someone of the same clan. Through playing this game, the youngsters get to know each other, forming relationships that may eventually lead to marriage. a. According to Liz Price who wrote the article call The Hmong Game of Love on the webpage thestar. om, she stated, “Throw the ball and catch a husband. If you see a boy you like, toss the ball to him and hope he returns it. But if you don’t like your potential partner, then drop the ball he throws you. ” The next activity is… B. The beauty contest is held every at Hmong New Year. This contest offers young ladies a chance to show off their talent and skills to the whole community. 1. The rules for the contest are that you cannot be married and if you win first place you will be “Miss Hmong” for one whole year until the next “Miss Hmong” is chosen. The contest usually runs for three days and is held during the New Year celebration.
C. There are also sports tournaments involving soccer, volleyball and kato for men and women. 1. Kato is played by using your feet, body, and head. One of the rules is you were not allowed to use your hands. The winning team gets first prized with a $500 reward. 2. Soccer is a big tournament that takes place during Hmong New Year. Soccer is given the top highest prize money for the winning team. First place gets five thousand dollars. 3. Unlike Soccer and Kato, both male and females play volleyball. Prices are given as well. The winning teams both males and females get five hundred dollars as their winning prize. D.
There is the talent show. 1. The talent show consist of multiple groups and sometimes individual performing some kind of traditional performance. a. One of the performances consists a group of girls performing a tradition dance. c. The Hmong flute is called Sao ‘Raj’; it is another intricate part of the talent show. The Sao is a vertical flute pierced with finger holes. The Hmong Sao is a single flute with hard and colorful timber; the sound it produces is harsh and sweet. When the Sao flute is being played on stage, the music captures the hearts of the audience and the hearts of young girls. Moving on to the second component…..
II. The tradition Hmong clothes. A. Hmong New years is presented with many traditional Hmong clothes that consists of bright colors and Hmong jewelries. The dabtshos (pronounced da chaw) is a decorative panel worn in the back of a Hmong woman’s traditional blouse. It is a required part of the woman’s traditional clothing. If a woman does not wear her dabtshos at New Years, other people would think it’s very strange. The needlework on the dabtshos is used as a way for a young woman to attract a husband. If she is wearing a beautifully decorated panel that shows off her mother’s sewing skills, many boys will want to be her artner in the ball toss. B. There is also coins involving in the costume. From my understanding, the coins show that you are rich or not. The more coins you have on your clothes, the more you are successful. C. A tradition hat is also worn. All the tradition clothes are all hand-made and stitched in multiple patterns. The last component is… III. The food that is offered at Hmong New Years. A. After a long day of enjoying the sports and activities, people go to the booth where they sell different varieties of food, such as bbq pork and chicken. These foods are served with a plate of rice and peppers.
Hmong sausage is one of the popular plates within the variety of food. It has a distinct taste of ginger and pepper made with pork. B. Another popular plate is papaya salad. It’s basically made with papaya fruit, tomatoes, lime juice, pepper, and tamarind juice. C. Lastly, there are also multiple fruit drinks and snacks. a. According to Jeff Lindsay on his website webpages. csus. edu, he said that he had talked to many people of different races about this event and many loves it. They agree that it’s a one of a kind celebration because it brings the community together in various ways and really show what the Hmong culture is about.
Conclusion: When people go to any HNY event held around the world they can expect to see a variety of colorful Hmong tradition dresses, expect to enjoy different Hmong traditional foods, and expect to be entertain with traditional Hmong dances, music, pageant, and more. Also, there are activities and games that anyone can participate in, such as the traditional ball toss game. The Hmong people originated in central Asia, and now live spread throughout China, Tibet, Laos and Vietnam. Many Laotian Hmong fought for the United States during the Vietnam war, after which they took refuge in California, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Traditionally, Hmong communities celebrate the new year at the end of the harvest, staggering these dates from August to December to allow communities to enjoy each other’s festivities. New year activities vary from community to community and reflect regional influences The only major holiday celebrated by the Hmong each year is the New Year’s celebration timed to fall during the full moon at the end of the twelfth lunar calendar month usually around November. In Laos it falls after the rice harvest and also marks the beginning of the r New Yea
