Hmong New Year
It took 6 hours to get from Hanoi to Moc Chau by mini bus. A gradual climb from the flatlands of the Red River delta into the mountainous region of North Western Vietnam which borders Loas. The plan for the following days was to get some photos of the Hmong New Year celebrations, which this year were taking place in February. Traveling with a small group of Vietnamese photographers, we were going to some remote villages to spend a few days meeting the locals and hoped to get some good shots over the three days of celebration.
The villagers were extremely welcoming, inviting our group into their houses to experience the preparation and cooking of the feast. This is traditionally meat and rice dishes, as eating vegetables at this time is not thought to bring such good luck in the coming year, although I did spot some "greens" being boiled outside of the main kitchen. One traditional dish is pounded rice which is then dried and wrapt in a banana leaf. It's texture is like hard toffee - and each of us were gifted a number of these to take back home to Hanoi.
Many of those we met were also keen to get their photos taken, the results causing much hilarity when reviewed on the cameras viewer. A number of the photographers come back regularly, so always bring prints of the previous visit to give out to the villagers as a way of thanking them for their hospitality.
The celebrations usually mark the end of the rice harvest around November time, due to the lunar cycle, this year were at the beginning of February. As well as an opportunity for families and friends to get together to celebrate the toils of the previous season and look forward to the next, the New Year is a spiritual festival; an opportunity for giving thanks to ancestors and for the children to honor and receive blessings from the elders in the family.
The weather wasn't great for the outside games the children played or the photography - with heavy showers and dense mountain mist much of the time, and a chilly temperature of around 5 degrees celsius. However nothing was going to dampen either the children's high spirits or the intense gossip and discussions taking place in and around the communal cooking. The happy holiday atmosphere and the children's game playing skills, was captured in many of our photos, even though the light was a little dull and flat.
Boys played with handmade wooden spinning tops, wound with string, attached to the end of a stick and unleashed with throw and a whipping back of the stick behind them. As well as spinning the tops for over 20 seconds they also used other boys spinning tops as target practice and could hit these with incredible accuracy up to 5 or so meters away.
The girls played a variation on a traditional ball game - "catch a special friend" or pov pob, which as adolescents they often play with boys from other villages. A ball or bean bag is thrown between two lines of boys and girls around 10 feet apart, and if dropped then that person must give a token to the person that threw them the ball, or if they have no token, sing a song. The boys were busy running around in the mist playing football, so it seemed like on this occasion the girls were just practicing.
It was a great trip meeting and interacting with the local people and getting a small incite into their culture and life. Even when communication is only gestures and smiles (as no one in our group spoke the local Hmong language) it was easy enough to feel the goodwill and relaxed happiness that the celebrations brought with them.