Video: Hmong New Year

Pat Hao, Laos

On the 15^th of December we celebrated Hmong new year in Pat Hao village, Vang Vieng.

The Hmong are a mountain people, so it's unusual to attend this event without having to hike a few thousand vertical feet, but the people of Pat Hao have been relocated to the Lao lowlands near Vang Vieng. They have rebuilt their village in an area where the rice crops can be replanted in the same place every year, their children can attend school to learn the Lao language and there is a hospital nearby.

The Hmong celebrate new year throughout the month, but only for two weeks in each village. They celebrate in conjunction with neighbours, so as one celebration winds down it begins afresh with their closest friends.

The festivities serve a few purposes. They are an important break after rice harvest from otherwise year-round labour and play a vital role in the continuation of the tribe, providing an opportunity for young Hmong people (usually separated by their duties) to court.

The ritual ball throwing between the brightly costumed girls and the vaguely embarassed looking teenage boys in this video might look strange to us, but it's a way for youths on the cusp of adulthood to express interest in a possible life partner. There's no divorce among the Hmong, so what looks like cute play is actually a very serious matter ;) Some Lao boys from town were there too, so they must have liked the looks of the Hmong girls (and who wouldn't).

As usual the men have their own business. For Hmong men new year business consists of top spinning tournaments, beer drinking (the Hmong are not usually big drinkers) and cock fights. You can't combine top spinning with beer drinking though, because it's one of the most skillful sports I've ever seen. The wooden tops are set spinning by throwing whips, which are then used to flick more wooden tops to knock those ones off axis. At each round the contestants move further away from the original tops and the result is a really fascinating spectator sport. If you want to be more than a spectator you had better start practicing now, because it takes years to become as proficient as the men in the movie.

The elder women with no children to mind are responsible for cooking the feast. They found our efforts to strip the bamboo covers off our sticky rice snacks hilarious and they nearly fell into the fire laughing when Doug jokingly pretended to eat the bamboo cover.

One thing I couldn't help noticing is how incredibly beautiful the Hmong girls are and how well they sing. While we watched girl after girl took the microphone to sing a mixture of Hmong, Lao and Thai songs and every one of them had a voice like a nightingale.

It was a gorgeous day, out there under those mountains, so I won't be forgetting it in a hurry, no matter how much fun we have celebrating our traditional new year with the Khamu tribes people in Phongsali.