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<\/a><\/b>F<\/b><\/span><\/em>or many young Hmong, the New Year celebration is a time to choose a mate, and so this holiday is closely tied to another occasion for celebration; the wedding. In Laos, young Hmong men and women often marry a month or two after the New Year. This is an adaptation to life in the highlands, where the young live far from each other and travel is not easy, and where the farming lifestyle does not allow much time away from the elders during which to meet new people.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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The holiday which marks the end of the old year and the beginning of the new is a time for parents to rest and enjoy the fruits of their labor, while the young amuse themselves with and express their talents through a variety of games and similar activities. Music is played on the <\/span>qeej<\/span><\/i>, a bamboo flute; and there is singing and play with tops and balls and even bullfighting-like activities. Most importantly, the Hmong New Year is a time to begin anew with a carefree spirit. Tasty food is abundant, and guests are invited from far away to dine with friends and family members not seen for a long time. Relief from the ordinary cares of life is the order of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the night before the festival, a soul calling is performed. Afterward, the father of each family will invite the spirits of ancestors to visit and enjoy dinner. Then, on the day of the celebration, a long rope is fashioned from thatch; one end is tied high on a center pole, and the other end fastened to the ground. Holding a chicken in his hands, an elder man waves it over the heads of those who pass under the rope in order to bless them with good health in the coming year.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Hmong observe a few simple \u201cNew Year\u2019s Resolutions\u201d during the festival and for a short period afterward. For good luck in the coming year, it is considered essential to eat only meat and rice for three days. Those who eat vegetables, it is said, may disable themselves from obtaining sufficient meat throughout the year; of course, this implies difficulties in raising\u00a0<\/span>livestock. It is also considered unlucky to eat rice soup during this same three days. Those who do so may encounter hardships with the coming year\u2019s rice crop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since the selection of a partner made at the New Year celebration leads so often to marriage, the wedding celebration is considered in the same context. For the bride and groom, a wedding is a transition to adult responsibilities. Once married, social interaction is limited to more adult forms than before, especially for women. Since it is Hmong tradition that a new bride moves in with the groom\u2019s family, this family gains a valuable, new family member, and the newlywed couple is expected to fulfill the roles of a well-behaved son and daughter-in-law. In this way, dramatic changes are felt by the bride and the family she has left. While the bride\u2019s old family has lost a helper in work and a companion in leisure, the bride must make a sometimes difficult transition as she joins a new family and seeks to form her own. <\/span><\/p>\n She\u00a0<\/span>must assume her new family\u2019s spiritual traditions, which will differ in some respects from those she has known, and she must wear the new family\u2019s traditional costume and speak the new family\u2019s dialect, which is sometimes different from her own. Most importantly, she must bear children. As for the groom and his parents, they now have a new addition to the family and are responsible for teaching her their expectations and way of life.<\/span><\/p>\n As compensation for all the bride must endure in assuming her new duties, and to ensure their earnest intention to treat the bride well, as well as to recognize the effort expended by the bride\u2019s parents in raising a daughter, the groom\u2019s family makes an offering to them of money and\/or gifts. The bride\u2019s family, meanwhile, give as lavishly to the newlyweds as they are able, bestowing cash, household items, clothes, and jewelry in order to support the young couple in building their life together. As is customary during the Hmong New Year Celebration, certain restrictions are observed on the day of the wedding; for example, hot peppers are not allowed at table lest the marriage be troubled by arguments caused by hot tempers!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n After two young Hmong decide to marry, the groom and his parents bear the primary responsibility for the planning of the wedding. A team representing the groom\u2019s family interest must be organized for the ritual journey to the bride\u2019s home to greet the bride\u2019s parents, negotiate gifts, and bring the bride back to his home. Often this \u201cjourney\u201d is a short one, and symbolic only. Occasionally it is long, for the bride may live in another village several hours\u2019 walk from that of the groom. In any case, a picnic lunch will be prepared and enjoyed along the way \u2013 whether the journey requires fifteen minutes, six hours or a whole day. <\/span><\/p>\n Another traditional observance is the ritual \u201cpacking of three chickens.\u201d These cooked delicacies are utilized in the course of the wedding ceremony; one as a spiritual offering and two for consumption. Rice and salt will be packed, and blankets included for the convenience of guests. Traditional costumes are worn to and from the home of the bride\u2019s parents, and the bride\u2019s brother will be asked to play the <\/span>qeej<\/em> fl<\/span>ute as a send off for the wedding party as they return to the groom\u2019s home. Such customs as these originated in early times, when the homes of bride and groom were often not only separated by long distances, but when travel in the highlands of Southeast Asia was even more difficult and uncertain than presently.<\/span><\/p>\n Although guests at the festivities may number in the dozens or more, thirteen people make up the wedding party itself. These are: 1. the bride; 2. the groom; 3. the best man; 4. the bridesmaid; 5&6. the bride\u2019s marriage negotiators; 7&8. the groom\u2019s marriage negotiators; 9. the groom\u2019s delegated parent; 10. the bride\u2019s delegated parent; 11. the groom\u2019s brother; 12. the bride\u2019s brother; 13. one elder. Interactions between these principals will be extremely romantic, and even poetic, in nature, for all such interchanges are, by tradition, musical. In fact, at a Hmong wedding everything is done in song. There is a song to ask the bride\u2019s parents to open the door as the wedding procession arrives; there is a song to be performed while setting up a table at which the marriage negotiators will sit; there are songs to invite parents, songs to introduce the marriage negotiators to one another, songs for literally everything!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It will come as no surprise, therefore, that a Hmong wedding is a prolonged affair, and takes a great deal of time to finish. After the bride leaves her parents\u2019 home, there are still four more steps to be completed before the wedding is final. These are, 1) the introduction of the bride to the spirits of the groom\u2019s ancestors; 2) the notification of the bride\u2019s parents of the bride\u2019s whereabouts; 3) the soul calling on the third morning; and, 4) the post-wedding.<\/span><\/p>\n The first of these is when the bride and groom arrive at the groom\u2019s house for the first time. The groom calls his father or an elder man to the door and asks him to perform a welcoming ritual to transfer the<\/span><\/p>\n bride\u2019s allegiance from the spirits of her parents\u2019 ancestors to the spirits of the groom\u2019s ancestors. The second step is to deliver a message from the groom family to the bride\u2019s parents; if the wedding was secretly initiated and the bride leaves her parents\u2019 home to the groom family without anyone seeing. This message notices the bride\u2019s parents that they should look for their daughter no more, since she is now eternally to be found with the groom\u2019s family. The third step occurs on the third day after the bride\u2019s arrival at her new home. On this day, a soul calling is conducted to welcome the new arrival. Finally, the groom\u2019s family will perform a specific ritual of thanksgiving to express gratitude to all the wedding negotiators or assistants. This is the post-wedding, and, with this, the marriage is complete and the girl becomes a wife. As a symbol of her new status, she will remove forever the black and white striped cloth \u2013 called a c<\/em><\/span>iv ceeb <\/span><\/em>\u2013 from her turban. This striped cloth has been symbolically tied to an umbrella that has accompanied the wedding ritual from day one. This is a symbol of the union of man and wife, for, when the wedding ritual is over, the <\/span>civ ceeb <\/span><\/em>is untied from the umbrella, and the new bride opens it over her husband to signify that the two young lovers now shelter eternally under one roof. Forever afterward, as Western women wear a wedding ring, the traditional Hmong woman will signal her married status by wearing her turban without the black and white stripe.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Cha, Dia, Mai Zong Vue, and Steve Carmen. Field Guide to Hmong Culture<\/em>. Madison, WI:\u00a0Madison Children Museum, 2004.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many young Hmong, the New Year celebration is a time to choose a mate, and so this holiday is closely tied to another occasion for celebration; the wedding. In Laos, young Hmong men and women often marry a month or two after the New Year. This is an adaptation to life in the highlands, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1490,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" A Link Between Two Days<\/b><\/p> For many young Hmong, the New Year celebration is a time to choose a mate, and so this holiday is closely tied to another occasion for celebration; the wedding. In Laos, young Hmong men and women often marry a month or two after the New Year. This is an adaptation to life in the highlands, where the young live far from each other and travel is not easy, and where the farming lifestyle does not allow much time away from the elds during which to meet new people.<\/span><\/p> Meaning of the New Year<\/b><\/p> The holiday which marks the end of the old year and the beginning of the new is a time for parents to rest and enjoy the fruits of their labor, while the young amuse themselves with and express their talents through a variety of games and similar activities. Music is played on the <\/span>qeej<\/span><\/i>, a bamboo ute; and there is singing and play with tops and balls. There is even a sort of bullfighting! Most importantly, the Hmong New Year is a time to begin anew with a carefree spirit. Tasty food is abundant, and guests are invited from far away to dine with friends and family members not seen for a long time. Relief from the ordinary cares of life is the order of the day. <\/span><\/p> Preparations and Prohibitions<\/b><\/p> On the night before the festival, a soul calling is performed. Afterward, the father of each family will invite the spirits of ancestors to visit and enjoy dinner. Then, on the day of the celebration, a long rope is fashioned from thatch; one end is tied high on a center pole, and the other end fastened to the ground. Holding a chicken in his hands, an elder man waves it over the heads of those who pass under the rope in order to bless them with good health in the coming year. <\/span><\/p> New Year\u2019s Resolutions<\/b><\/p> The Hmong observe a few simple \u201cNew Year\u2019s Resolutions\u201d during the festival and for a short period afterward. For good luck in the coming year, it is considered essential to eat only meat and rice for three days. Those who eat vegetables, it is said, may nd themselves unable to obtain suf cient meat throughout the year; this, of course, implies there will be dif culties in raising <\/span><\/p> livestock. It is also considered unlucky to eat rice soup during this same three days. Those who do so may encounter dif culties with the coming year\u2019s rice crop.<\/span><\/p> Wedding Traditions<\/b><\/p> Since the selection of a partner made at the New Year celebration leads so often to marriage, the wedding celebration is considered in the same context. For the bride and groom, a wedding is a transition to adult responsibilities. Once married, social interaction is limited to more adult forms than before, especially for women. Since it is Hmong tradition that a new bride moves in with the groom\u2019s family, this family gains a valuable, new family member, and the newlywed couple is expected to ful ll the roles of a well- behaved son and daughter-in-law. In this way, dramatic changes are felt by the bride and the family she has left. While the bride\u2019s old family has lost a helper in work and a companion in leisure, the bride must make a sometimes dif cult transition as she joins a new family and seeks to form her own. She<\/span> As compensation for all the bride must endure in assuming her new duties, and to ensure their earnest intention to treat the bride well, as well as to recognize the effort expended by the bride\u2019s parents in raising a daughter, the groom\u2019s family makes an offering to them of money and\/or gifts. The bride\u2019s family, meanwhile, give as lavishly to the newlyweds as they are able, bestowing cash, household items, clothes, and jewelry in order to support the young couple in building their life together. As is customary during the Hmong New Year Celebration, certain restrictions are observed on the day of the wedding; for example, hot peppers are not allowed at table lest the marriage be troubled by arguments caused by hot tempers!<\/span><\/p> Wedding Procedures<\/b><\/p> After two young Hmong decide to marry, the groom and his parents bear the primary responsibility for the planning of the wedding. A team representing the groom\u2019s family interest must be organized for the ritual journey to the bride\u2019s home to greet the bride\u2019s parents, negotiate gifts, and bring the bride back to his home. Often this \u201cjourney\u201d is a short one, and symbolic only. Occasionally it is long, for the bride may live in another village several hours\u2019 walk from that of the groom. In any case, a picnic lunch will be prepared and enjoyed along the way \u2013 whether the journey requires fteen minutes, six hours or a whole day. <\/span><\/p> Another traditional observance is the ritual \u201cpacking of three chickens.\u201d These cooked delicacies are utilized in the course of the wedding ceremony; one as a spiritual offering and two for consumption. Rice and salt will be packed, and blankets included for the convenience of guests. Traditional costumes are worn to and from the home of the bride\u2019s parents, and the bride\u2019s brother will be asked to play the <\/span>qeej <\/span><\/i>ute as a send off for the wedding party as they return to the groom\u2019s home. Such customs as these originated in early times, when the homes of bride and groom were often not only separated by long distances, but when travel in the highlands of Southeast Asia was even more dif cult and uncertain than presently.<\/span><\/p> Although guests at the festivities may number in the dozens or more, thirteen people make up the wedding party itself. These are: 1. the bride; 2. the groom; 3. the best man; 4. the bridesmaid; 5&6. the bride\u2019s marriage negotiators; 7&8. the groom\u2019s marriage negotiators; 9. the groom\u2019s delegated parent; 10. the bride\u2019s delegated parent; 11. the groom\u2019s brother; 12. the bride\u2019s brother; 13. one elder. Interactions between these principals will be extremely romantic, and even poetic, in nature, for all such interchanges are, by tradition, musical. In fact, at a Hmong wedding everything is done in song. There is a song to ask the bride\u2019s parents to open the door as the wedding procession arrives; there is a song to be performed while setting up a table at which the marriage negotiators will sit; there are songs to invite parents, songs to introduce the marriage negotiators to one another, songs for literally everything!<\/p> Completing the Formalities<\/b><\/p> It will come as no surprise, therefore, that a Hmong wedding is a prolonged affair, and takes a great deal of time to finish. After the bride leaves her parents\u2019 home, there are still four more steps to be completed before the wedding is final. These are, 1. the introduction of the bride to the spirits of the groom\u2019s ancestors; 2. the noti cation of the bride\u2019s parents of the bride\u2019s whereabouts; 3. the soul calling on the third morning; and, 4. the post-wedding.<\/span><\/p> The first of these is when the bride and groom arrive at the groom\u2019s house for the rst time. The groom calls his father or an elder man to the door and asks him to perform a welcoming ritual to transfer the<\/span><\/p> bride\u2019s allegiance from the spirits of her parents\u2019 ancestors to the spirits of the groom\u2019s ancestors. The second step is to deliver a message from the groom family to the bride\u2019s parents; if the wedding was secretly initiated and the bride leaves her parents\u2019 home to the groom family without anyone seeing. This message noti es the bride\u2019s parents that they should look for their daughter no more, since she is now eternally to be found with the groom\u2019s family. The third step occurs on the third day after the bride\u2019s arrival at her new home. On this day, a soul calling is conducted to welcome the new arrival. Finally, the groom\u2019s family will perform a speci c ritual of thanksgiving to express gratitude to all the wedding negotiators or assistants. This is the post-wedding, and, with this, the marriage is complete and the girl becomes a wife. As a symbol of her new status, she will remove forever the black and white striped cloth \u2013 called a <\/span>siv ceeb <\/span><\/i>\u2013 from her turban. This striped cloth has been symbolically tied to an umbrella that has accompanied the wedding ritual from day one. This is a symbol of the union of man and wife, for, when the wedding ritual is over,the <\/span>civ ceeb <\/span><\/i>is untied from the umbrella, and the new bride opens it over her husband to signify that the two young lovers now shelter eternally under one roof. Forever afterward, as Western women wear a wedding ring, the traditional Hmong woman will signal her married status by wearing her turban without the black and white stripe. <\/span><\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-642","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":764,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642\/revisions\/764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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must assume her new family\u2019s spiritual traditions, which will differ in some respects from those she has known, and she must wear the new family\u2019s traditional costume and speak the new family\u2019s dialect, which is sometimes different from her own. Most importantly, she must bear children. As for the groom and his parents, they now have a new addition to the family and are responsible for teaching her their expectations and way of life.<\/span><\/p>