Catch the Good Luck: Songs for Hmong New Year

Folk Arts - Catch the Good Luck: Songs for Hmong New Year
By Joan Rabinowitz

“In the morning when the first chickens crow, you have to open the door and sing the song.” Nhia Hieu welcomes the New Year with a song that comes from his Hmong ancestors in China. “You have to open the door,” Nhia explained. “The old year is going and the new year is coming, and you open the door and give a lot of good wishes to the people.”

Nhia Hieu is a Hmong basket maker and musician who grew up in the northern part of laos, close to China. “We celebrate New Year in our country and we still use some of the ceremonies that our great-grandparents from China did. In this country, I don't see it often.”

Nhia has brought the old culture with him to Seattle. “The song for the morning is to catch the good luck and the happiness for the year. You know the Hmong culture, they may believe that some people's spirits may be wandering around somewhere else. And it's time to call everybody home. It's all the good things like the money spirit, the food spirit, everything good comes into the family, so you'll be happy for the next year.”

New Year is the most important Hmong holiday. In Laos, Hmong celebrate New Year for a full month. It's a time after the harvest for families to get together with friends and share the food they've collected, to visit, sing songs, play games, and it's a time for courtship. The first three days of the New Year is the religious, feasting part of the holiday.

“On the first day of the New Year, we have to cook a lot,” explained Chong Moua Lee, a former Hmong farmer and qeej musician. “And we have to sacrifice to the old and to the dead. We feed them first, before we can eat. We also cut a tree and use chickens to ask the spirit from the dead to come back and take all the bad things from the old year and bless the New Year.”

“Then, after that three days, then people will start to play,” explained Blia Xiong, an interpreter and one of the first Hmong in Seattle. “It's a time for the youth. Youth back in Laos work very hard, just like their parents. Parents send children to the farm every morning. And, they have no time to see each other.” It's at New Year’s celebrations that youth have a chance to get to know each other. “So, that's the only time for them to talk and to share. Mothers will tell them to get ready for catching the happiness or the good luck for the New Year.”

Singing plays an important part in bringing young men and women together. One form of courtship particular to New Year's time is “pov pob” or “toss ball.” Rows of boys and girls dressed in New Year’s finery, stand opposite each other, tossing balls back and forth. “In the old days, my parents told me that people stand very far from each other. And, if you drop the ball, then you have to give something,” Blia explained. “For example, if the girl drops the ball, she has to give something to the boy. If she doesn't want to give anything from herself, like her jewelry, then she can sing a song. To pay for it.” In Laos, the games went of for days or weeks at a time, giving the youth the time to get to know each other.

So, to win at toss ball, you had to be a good singer. Some songs were ones that had been handed down for generations. Others were joking or teasing songs made up on the spot. “For example,” Blia began, “maybe in the beginning of the game, the boy will say, ‘Would you like to become my wife?’ And, the song may say, ‘You may have a girlfriend already, and you just come here making a joke on me.’ And, then the boy will say, ‘If you're thinking that I'm making a joke at you, would you like to come home with me tonight?’”

“And, towards the end of the song, it may go very serious. Like, ‘you have been making fun with me for these three days, and you have to marry me.’ And, by the end of the games, many of the youth were married.”

Parents and relatives enjoy the games. “They will come and sit around and watch their children sing. When it’s a joking song, people will sit around and laugh. Songs like joking songs, you can make it up when you sing. And, a good singer make it up so quick. That's how they say that you're a good singer.”

“But, there ar also sad songs, like orphan and refugee songs. And people will come sit, and listen and cry. Refugee songs, where you're talking about what you left behind and what you miss. Songs will tell part of your past. It's like a history of Hmong life.”

These songs can also be played on the qeej, a Hmong instrument made from bamboo tubes with brass reeds. Chong Moua Lee played qeej for many different occasions in Laos, such as funerals, weddings, and New Year. “At the New Year, then you can play qeej. We call dhiam qeej. Dhiam qeej it's more like a dance with qeej. A lot of times they let just one person play and then they all listen to the music. But sometimes people can play qeej; two, three people together, dance together too.”

Chong Moua Lee continues to play for New Year in Seattle. One of the songs he plays is an orphan song. This song, it's like being an orphan or lonely. It says that when I came to this country, I don't have anybody. And I just see people, friends and other families, they have close family, brothers, and sisters, and food-they eat good food- and me, I don't have anybody, I'm alone. And I'm very sad. So when I go home, I just eat rice with vegetables only. And it makes me cry.”

People also play other instruments at New year as a form of courtship; the raj, a single bamboo pipe with a reed and the ncas, a tiny bamboo jew's harp. Chong Moua Lee learned to play both instruments when he was young. “Youth in the Hmong people, they're really shy. When they’re falling in love, they're not going to tell anybody. So they will blow it to give the missing part of your heart. Boys always go at night to talk to girls, and they will use the ncas to communicate through the wall. And it's not to say in the real words, but to speak in the ncas, so the girls and the boys, they get to know each other and fall in love.”

“Because, our culture, we don't date,” Blia continued, “Boys will come at night. They learn where the girl's bedroom is and on the other side of the wall of the bedroom, they will call you and wake you up in the middle of the night. And the girl will sing, ‘in the middle of the night, you wake me up and what is the reason?’ And, the boy will answer, ‘I don't want to know your wall, because your parents may hear it. So, the only thing I an do is pick up my ncas, and I will play it and I want you to answer me.’ So, then she will pick up her ncas and answer him. And that's part of the song. A lot of people will sing those kinds of songs. Back home, our wall is like bamboo. Where you can hear each other, and you can talk to each other through the wall.”
“In our country,” Lee went on, “raj and ncas, almost everybody knows how to play it. Here in this country, I don't really feel that people now are doing it. In about twenty or the next thirty years, I think it's going to be gone. Because children these days, they don't want to learn it any more.”

Hmong celebrate New Year every year in Seattle. “We will really want to keep our own culture alive,” explained Joua Pao Yang, president of Washington's Hmong Association. “So, we still have to celebrate the New Year. And, that's the only culture that we can keep for the children. And, especially for the elderly together once a year, to get together, to be happy. To enjoy together. That's the only time and only way we can do.”

Because of the conflict of the time, the work schedule, we cannot use time and moon for New Year as we used to in Laos. In the United States, we have to use only the time that allows people to come together. So, why we have to do on Saturday. That's the only time that people can be free.”

We have done that since 1980, when the refugees started coming more into this country,” Blia explained. “In Seattle, here we have a small community and we only celebrate for one day.” For the past five years, the community has celebrated New Year's at the Seattle Center. “During the day, we have a culture show where we go from music to singing, and then dancing, traditional dance. So if you come during the day, you see young girl and young boy play toss ball. The young, these days, don't sing that well, but they still play toss ball and they still exchange things, just for fun. That change a lot in this country. And, at night, we will have a party, you know, for traditional music and western music.”

Thanks a lot of the source!!