Hmong New Year Celebration
Every year, St. Olaf’s Hmong Culture Outreach (HCO) and Carleton’s Coalition of Hmong Students (CHS) hold an annual Hmong New Year celebration. This year, the celebration was held at the beautifully autumn decorated, Carleton’s Weitz Center. The program hosted a guest speaker and a fusion of Hmong-Thai dancing, contemporary Hmong dancing, singing, a fashion show, photo booth, and poetry.
Guest speaker KaYing Yang gave a wonderful speech about the original meaning and practice of the Hmong New Year and how it has changed over the course of time. She focused on the meaning of family and community celebrating the end of the harvest season and ball tossing as a means of courting. Although the meaning of the New Year has changed through the passage of time, community and family gathering has not. Kevin Yang, a guest performer and spoken word artist performed two poems about the Hmong identity.
The celebration ended with a HCO/CHS song collaboration, performing Hmoob lub kua muag, which translates to Hmong Tears or Hmong people’s tears. This is a beautiful song about love and community, and giving thanks to ancestors, grandparents and parents for opportunities given.