It’s been 3 years since the last Oroville Hmong New Year had opened. Ever since COVID-19 hit the whole nation, everything we loved had stopped. Now things are opening back up again and everyone is coming back together and reuniting. There are a lot of Hmong New Year events happening around the world, but California has one of the most populations in the Hmong Community. The New Year events start from the North and down to the South in California. The next event happens at Cal Expo, Sacramento on November 24-26, 2023. If you want to go to the biggest one in California and experience more, you’ll like to go to the Fresno Fairgrounds from December through January.
The Hmong New Year and regular New Year are different from each other. The regular New Year is where you stay up until the new year comes and make goals of what you want to do in that year. The Hmong New Year is where you celebrate by meeting new people and eating good food. You also wear nice clothes or different types of traditional clothing from different clans. For example, Samantha Vang said, “I loved how our tradition only happens every year and everyone gets to share their different traditional clothing.” She loves everyones’
different clothing and how it expresses their clan. Once you get into the Hmong New Year, everyone is all dressed up differently from each other. There are modern style Hmong Clothing or traditional clothing. Many people really like the clothing, as Cindy Long said, “I really like seeing all the children in traditional clothing. It makes me happy to see them embrace their culture and be proud.” It doesn’t really matter anymore which clan traditional clothing you want to wear. Whatever looks good on you or whatever you have, you could wear to the New Year and still fit in with everyone else.
Things you should expect at a Hmong New Year before you go. There are a lot of things going on around the event. Sometimes the New Year seems small, but there’s a lot to do. Some of the popular things to do are eating the food, watching sports, and shopping. Everyone likes the food part because it’s different from the things you eat everyday. Another statement from Cindy Long said, “The food, especially the fish.” Fish is a really popular dish that everyone buys at the start of the new year, but there are many more delicious dishes as well; Mao Lao said her favorite food at the new year is, “[papaya] I love Papaya, it’s one of my favorite dishes at the New Year!” Not only is food a good thing, but many people like buying their food and then bringing the food to watch the sports going on in the sports area. This is everyone’s entertainment while eating food. You can also watch the sports tournament for fun too! Finally, the last activity everyone likes doing is going shopping. Many people like shopping because you can buy new things you haven’t had before or just shop for fun. Another thing about shopping is that you get to meet new people along the way!
These are only some of the things that are at the Hmong New Year. There are many more activities at different events. Everyone should try to at least go to one in their life and experience something new. This event only happens once a year and usually on the weekends. To wrap all this up, you should try to go to one and experience something new that you don’t see everyday.
