Hmong dancers perform on stage at the Hmong New Year festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.
Revelers of Hmong New Year celebrated rituals, song and dance in their colorful traditional garments on Saturday, Dec. 9 at El Dorado Park.
Hosted by the Hmong Association of Long Beach, the celebration kicked off with a ribbon cutting by Bonnie Lowenthal, vice president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, to open the gate into the festival grounds.
Celebrants lined up to go through the gates, eating an egg and drinking cider. They were calling ancestral spirits back for wealth and blessings, said Casie Yang, secretary of the Hmong Association. Youth from the Hmong Association then marched to ring in the New Year.
The Hmong people are an indigenous group in East and Southeast Asia including Southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
“It means a lot to us to have these rituals and celebrations that we learned from our elders,” said Yang. “Most of us were born here or grew up here, so this is a reminder that you’re still Hmong.”
Vendors at the festival offered Lao dishes, handmade artisan clothes and other wares while Hmong dancers and performers beckoned good health, fortune and prosperity through folk songs.
Vibrant, decorated attire worn during the celebration symbolized representation of 18 different Hmong clans from different regions of Laos, said Yang.
The Hmong Association also offers a program called Qeej not Gangs, which teaches Hmong arts and culture to the public.
Celebrants line up for festivities to kick off at the gates of the Hmong New Year festival grounds in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.Bonnie Lowenthal, vice president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, cuts the ribbon to kick off the Hmong New Year Festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.Young participants in traditional attire march to ring in the New Year at the Hmong festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.Master Jian Khay Cha plays a Lao flute on stage at the Hmong New Year festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.Young celebrants march to ring in the new year at the Hmong New Year festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.Chue Lee sings a folk song to bring in good health, fortune and prosperity for the new year at the Hmong New Year festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.Hmong performers play drums and dance at the Hmong New Year festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.Details of a decorated traditional Hmong headdress worn at the Hmong New Year festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.A celebrant plays Tuj Lub Hmoob, a Hmong spinning top game at the Hmong New Year festival in El Dorado Park on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Photo by Maison Tran.
