The Hmong look forward to celebrating the New Year more than anything else. Every year, the Hmong New Year Festival is celebrated throughout the world, this is the only time they can rest and celebrate their heritage. In the old country or ‘lub tebchaws qub’ (a term Hmong refer to as in the mountains of Laos prior to the Vietnam War), the days consisted of hard labor and farming. Every morning, hours before the sunrise, the Hmong would pack their garden tools and walk miles into the fields to work until dusk. During the harvesting season, they made sure they would gather enough food to celebrate the coming of the New Year, or the 30th of the last month in the year. In Hmong, this is referred to as ‘Noj Tsiab Peb Caug’ – literally translated as Eating the New 30th. Families and friends would come together to celebrate and feast for several days.
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