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Letter to the editor

Hmong residents mark traditional New Year

The natives of Southeast Asia who live in Florida plan numerous activities.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published December 23, 2007

PINELLAS PARK - While many people are using this weekend for those last-minute Christmas errands, others are celebrating New Year's.

Although a New Year's celebration may be a week early for most Americans, it's actually a month late for members of the Hmong community.

The Hmong follow the lunar calendar, which puts their New Year's around the time of the American Thanksgiving, said Shawn Yang, president of the Florida Hmong Community Inc.

For the Hmong, New Year marks the end of the harvest season, Yang said, and gives them a chance to thank ancestors, God, family and others for the bounty of the crops. It's the most revered holiday for the Hmong. "It's similar to Thanksgiving," Yang said.

But it's easier for business owners and others to take time off around Christmas, so the local celebration is held the weekend before Christmas.

This is the first year the celebration has been held in Pinellas Park. The first year, 2003, it was held in Gibsonton and for the following three years it was celebrated in Clearwater.

It was moved to Pinellas Park this year because the city is more centrally located, plus it had the necessary facilities at one venue for all the activities during the two-day celebration.

Among the activities are a beauty pageant, and soccer, volleyball and golf tournaments. The Hmong will also show off their culture during the event, which ends today. The activities will be spread out from the England Brothers Bandshell through the adjoining park land and into the city's new Performing Arts Center.

"It's good that we found that facility to use," Yang said.

The Hmong are natives of Southeast Asia who were recruited by the CIA as a "secret army" to help fight the North Vietnamese in Laos. Their involvement with the war began in 1963 and ended in 1975 after the United States pulled out of Southeast Asia.

Soon after, Laos fell to the Communists. Many Hmong remained in their ancestral homes in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and China, but others migrated to France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Argentina and the United States.

About 275,000 Hmong live in the United States, most of them in Minnesota, Wisconsin and California. About 2,000 Hmong live in Florida. They began settling here around 1980 but most came to the state about 2003. That's when the New Year's celebration was begun.

Although the New Year's celebration is a part of their culture, Yang said he hopes others will come to the event to get to know the Hmong and share their culture and traditions.

If you go

Hmong New Year

The Florida Hmong New Year - Xyoo Tshiab - 2008 continues today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the England Brothers Bandshell, 5121 81st Ave. N, Pinellas Park. For information, call 644-2899 or visit www.floridahmong.org.

[Last modified December 22, 2007, 20:38:32]