Traditional Hmong shaman/animist believers celebrate their New Year according to the lunar calendar on an auspicious day, if possible, some time in mid- to late-November. For the shaman, he or she may need to prepare up to a month in advance before the celebratory day as food, live chickens, paper money and incense needs to be bought. Plus, the shaman needs to do a pre-session of ua neej to let the shaman’s spirits roam free for a few weeks before the New Year.
New Years are important because it’s a day of cleansing and renewing the protection of the house, blessing everyone in the household, remembering the ancestors, and starting on a fresh foot.
As a shaman, the New Year contains a few more steps than a household that does not have a shaman including having to ua neej. My father does it in the morning sometimes a week ahead to get it over and done with, a family who doesn’t prepare or who prefers doing it later can do so. It all depends on preference.
During this session of ua neej, my father calls back his spirits that he had let roam a few weeks ago. (Did you know that for a normal person, he or she has 32 spirits (plig) that are his or hers? But more on that some other time.) He checks on the spirits of everyone else in the household and eventually gets to calling the spirits of the pigs which he had used to help ua neej for other people. These pig spirits are still roaming in this realm and during this time, he sends them to the upper realms to reincarnate. The shaman keeps track of each pig by keeping their jawbones by the altar and every time New Year comes around, the shaman would send off the pigs with blessings and ceremonially burn the jawbones that their job is done here.
To start off the New Year’s Day, the shaman or head of the household would brush out any bad spirits and bad intentions lingering in the house (if he didn’t have to ua neej anymore). This is usually done through the use of a tree branch (my dad likes the evergreen family for this purpose) being swept and waved around every corner of the house chanting words of cleansing and clearing of anything malevolent or undesirable to be brushed away and out of the house.
In the above picture, this evergreen brush is marked with red cloth and paper money which my dad left outside under a tree and forgot to trash it.
After clearing the house, it needs protecting. This is done through pasting pieces of paper throughout the house.
The paper money attached to the top of the door represents the place where the house spirits are stationed to guard the house. Two pieces of paper money are attached to all door entryways with a door. One piece of paper money may also be attached to all other furniture, appliances, or large important/highly used objects including cars. A piece of paper is also attached to all four corners of the house on the outside as well, setting up a perimeter in a way.
After this, the shaman or the head of the household will hu plig meaning he or she will set up at a doorway entry. A chair is placed at the door where a bowl of uncooked rice is set up with eggs on top. A few incense sticks are lit up and two chickens are set nearby. The door is then propped open where the shaman or head of the household will sound the gong continuously and then proceed to call in all the household member’s spirits back, bless every individual in the house, to bless the family financially, and ward off anything bad.
Once that is done, the chickens will be taken to the kitchen to be butchered and cooked. The shape of the feet after being cooked and the curl of the tongue will be read like a fortune.
Before eating the dinner meal, the shaman or the head of the household will call on his ancestral spirits such as his father, his grandpa, his great grandpa’s spirits, and so on to a feast. The usual set up is as shown above. He will let them know that it’s the New Year, that he has prepared dinner for them (of rice, boiled chicken, and alcohol), that they should come eat and be merry, and to help keep the household safe and healthy.
Past that, it’s time for everyone to dig in after a full day of work, activity, cooking, and waiting. The family, as a general rule to be financially fortunate, is expected to not use money to pay for or buy anything.
If you wanted to do your own traditional Hmong New Year, you can either ask an experienced shaman to help you out during the hu plig, or spirit call or try doing it yourself. A shaman may be your best bet though as they have their own equipment and gongs. But if you attempt to do this yourself, the key points to remember are to call all family members’ spirits, to bless everyone individually in the house, and to ward off anything bad from getting into the house be it illness, bad spirits, or curses. Also, remember to feed, love and respect the ancestral spirits during this day as well.
The traditional Hmong New Year can be very long and laborious. Much of the details that happened throughout the day has not been elaborated on here…yet. But please feel free to ask if there areany questions.
