Hmong community kicks off New Year’s celebrations with some jingle at Sacramento’s Cal Expo
The crisp fall air at Sacramento’s Cal Expo has been ringing since Friday with what sounds like jingling bells, but upon closer inspection, that jolly “ching, ching, ching” actually is emanating from ornamental silver coins attached to the vests, sashes, headpieces and dresses of hundreds of people celebrating Hmong New Year.
November marks the start of these celebrations, said Elk Grove resident Kathy Yang, who presides over the Sacramento Hmong New Year festival.
It is the largest such event in the world, she boasted, saying it had eclipsed the Fresno and Twin Cities celebrations in size. She and her team have prepared to welcome more than 30,000 people to the event. Strolling the grounds, a Sacramento Bee reporter met people from China, Laos, Fresno and Stockton.
Happy Hmong New Year. Or “Nyob zoo xyoo tshiab!”
Friday marked the start of the Sacramento celebration with a ribbon cutting and parade. It will end Sunday with results from a pageant, a dance competition, cornhole games, golf and volleyball tournaments and more. Saturday, Yang said, is the most crowded day of the year.
Men, women and children stroll through what most Sacramentans think of as “The Midway” for the California State Fair, replacing neon signage with a living kaleidoscope of color. Electric pinks, royal blue, vivid reds, purples of all hues jump out from fashionable Thai attire. Undaunted by the acres of concrete walkways, many women and teen girls set off their attire with three- or four-inch heels.
The Hmong New Year celebrates fall harvests, but it also serves as a time when many venerate their ancestors, educate their children about their Hmong traditions and seek the protection of good spirits for the year to come.
The jingling ornamental coins, for instance, symbolize a wish for good luck and financial prosperity in the year to come, much like how Southerners believe they will enjoy the same by eating collard greens and Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day.
Yang, who is Christian, said she no longer practices spiritual aspects of Hmong culture, but she continues to enjoy the food, music and cultural aspect of her people. She and Hmong New Year marketing director Brandon Xiong invited people of all races to come to Cal Expo and experience the richness of the Hmong culture with them.
“Come and be Hmong for a day,” Yang said.
Vendors are selling Hmong food, clothing, children’s books and more at the festival.
Fresno residents Belle Her and her husband Adam Yang operated one clothing booth. Yang said that while some people seek traditional Hmong attire, others want fashionable outfits that integrate traditional textiles, graphics and ornaments.
At another booth, veteran Sacramento educator See Lor was selling some of the nine books she’s written to help Hmong parents educate their children about Hmong language and culture. She also sells some of her books at readingkarma.com.
“If we don’t teach and preserve the language, it is a dying language,” Lor said, “and for me, being an educator, I don’t want to see that.”
A book titled “The Family That I Love” — or “Tsev Neeg Uas Kuv Hlub” in Hmong — shares the story of a young girl Skyla, introducing her relatives in English and Hmong. In the book, illustrated by Duachaka Her, one thing that children learn is that the words used to describe their paternal and maternal grandparents are completely different.
Lor said she teaches second grade in the Hmong Dual Immersion Program at Susan B. Anthony Elementary School in the Sacramento City Unified School District. The school website notes that it as the first such program in California.
Also at Cal Expo, designer Ong Xiong was selling hoodies, T-shirts and other clothing emblazoned with bold Hmong graphics, phrases and symbolic creatures like the dragon and tiger. Xiong was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand and grew up in rural Laos. She partners in life and in business with San Diego native Johnny Her to run their company, Hmong Threads.
As a pageant progressed inside one Cal Expo building, 63-year-old Fresno resident Neng Phao sang a plaintive song in Hmong about a lost love. Fresno will kick off its own Hmong New Year celebration Dec. 28-31 at the Fresno Fairgrounds.
Kathy Yang estimated that the Hmong community has thrown New Year celebrations in the Sacramento region for about 35 years, 19 of them at Cal Expo. A financial representative for Western & Southern Life Insurance, Yang is the first woman president of the event in yet another example of how Hmong women have increasingly moved beyond their traditional roles as homemakers. (In 2020, Mai Vang became the first Hmong woman to hold a seat on the Sacramento City Council.)
Yang urged everyone to come and judge for themselves just how large and colorful this event has become. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd. Tickets are $8 for attendees ages 6-64 and free to all others. Parking is $10. Bring along some cash, as a few vendors do not accept credit cards.
