UPDATE: Due to expected inclement weather, the event has been moved from Tigertown to Sikes Hall in the RP Funding Center at 701 W. Lime St. Click here for more information.
The local Hmong community will transform a grass lot near the stadium at Tigertown this Saturday for the biggest New Year’s celebration it has ever hosted. Hmong New Year is the most important holiday for the Hmong people, an ethnic minority group residing across Southeast Asia.
How do you pronounce “Hmong?”
Think of the word “among,” and then just say the “mong” part.
Florida Hmong Community, Inc. is inviting everyone to come out and learn about their culture. There is no cost to attend the event — which includes a free community lunch, games, performances and crafts — but parking is $10.
“Traditionally, the Hmong New Year is an event in our community where we rest and enjoy the year’s harvest from our hillside farms in Laos. During this time, each village would have a New Year (celebration) and people from neighboring villages would come to see family and meet new friends,” explained Shoua Moua Lor, the organization’s vice president.
“It’s also the time that young people find life partners. Families share meals, get dressed up in colorful traditional clothes, engage in games, arts and crafts, sports, and contests of many kinds,” she said.
About the celebration
At this year’s celebration, there will be volleyball and cornhole tournaments, which start at 8 am. The opening ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. There will be a free community lunch, a few traditional Hmong activities and a variety of Hmong performers, including singers, dancers, and artists, on stage from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. There will also be vendors selling Hmong-related food and merchandise.
The theme of the celebration this year is, “Home is where the Hmong is.” Lor said the theme highlights how Hmong who have recently moved to Florida are finding ways to make it home, while still embracing their culture.
The organization is also hosting a party in Sikes Hall at the RP Funding Center on Saturday evening. Doors open at 6 p.m. They will have four well-known Hmong performers and two local Hmong DJs. The formal party will feature traditional Hmong and Lao music as well as Hmong pop and rap music. Admission is $20 per person in advance and $25 at the door.
“Many of us have found that no matter where we go and why, we do look for Hmong. We look for anything that connects to our Hmong-ness and in Florida, it’s been amazing to see how many people settle here, away from family and friends, to find Hmong-ness in planting sugarcane, bamboo, and herbs we grew up eating,” said Lor.
“When Hmong people find Hmong-ness around them, they’re home.”
Shoua Moua Lor, vice President of florida hmong community, Inc.
“There’s a new sense of pride that only comes when you have been removed from a familiar place and a community and have to define who you are again. I see that when busy northern city folks buy acres of land down here and are quietly setting up bamboo-thatched gazebos in their backyards,” she said. When Hmong people find Hmong-ness around them, they’re home.”
Hmong were wartime allies
Members of the Hmong ethnic group in America are typically refugees or descendants of Hmong refugees from Laos, Thailand or Vietnam.
As Lor tells it, their community was farmers who assisted the United States military during the Vietnam War. They first came to the U.S. in large numbers in the 1970s.
“When the American CIA needed support to defeat the communists during the Vietnam War, they enlisted Vang Pao, a community leader and educated Hmong, who then got our grandfathers, uncles, fathers, and brothers to help American pilots and soldiers navigate the area. Most Hmong men were fighters; some were pilots; many ran intelligence. Some of our Hmong grandmothers, aunts, moms, and sisters became nurses almost overnight and helped provide medical care for wounded soldiers, Hmong and American,” Lor said.
After the fall of Saigon in 1975, some Hmong were airlifted to Thailand, but many had to walk and cross the Mekong River to Thailand to avoid persecution. From the refugee camps in Thailand, many applied to enter the United States and other countries, Lor said.
Lor said the Hmong culture is a blend of Chinese, Laotian, Thai and French.
“People can expect to learn how similar we are to our ancestors, the Chinese, and yet how different we are, since we’ve moved to Laos way back, been influenced by the French occupation, and have persevered through so many political and cultural shifts. Our language is a melting pot of Chinese syntax, Lao and Thai semantics, and French grammar, our current written language,” Lor explained.
Finding a new home
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2019, there were 327,000 Hmong living in the U.S. Lor believes the largest concentration of Hmong are in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. While she doesn’t have an official count, she believes there are now hundreds, if not thousands of Hmong living in the Tampa Bay area. She said many are moving here to escape the cold. In central Florida, Lor said Plant City and Lakeland are the hot spots.
“Some love the weather, but fear living too close to the coasts, (due to) hurricanes so they settle there. Hardee County is where a lot of Hmong farmers and those wanting land reside. Hillsborough is beginning to get more Hmong people, mostly young and active families who want the bigger suburb lifestyle,” Lor said, adding that Lakeland is a popular choice because of its close proximity to Tampa and Orlando.
Lor’s family moved to Lakeland in 2019, settling in the Lakes at Laurel Highlands, just north of the Publix headquarters.
“(I) loved the newness of the development … and it was close to my brothers in Plant City and South Lakeland,” Lor said.
The move was a form of semi-retirement for her husband, an egg breeder. They previously lived in Arkansas on a 65-acre farm, where he ran an egg business for nearly 20 years. The family moved to Riverview in 2021, where Lor secured a job as an instructional coach and English teacher at the new Sumner High School.
Calvin and Ee Yang are also members of Florida Hmong Community, Inc. The couple, in their forties, lives in South Lakeland. They moved to Lakeland from North Carolina in 2019. Calvin was born in Thailand and Ee in Wisconsin. The opportunity to buy land south of Lakeland was attractive to them.
“(I) wanted a change and bought some land to farm bamboo in Fort Meade,” explained Ee Yang.
The couple works remotely, Ee in human resources and Calvin in graphic design. She said they also found Lakeland’s location attractive.
“It’s a good place to raise a family. Not too big and not too small. Close to the big cities,” Yang said.
Lor said one of the reasons the group is having the celebration is to introduce the greater Lakeland community to Hmong culture, and families like the Yangs.
“One of our organization’s goals is to preserve the uniqueness of our culture through education. We host events to teach young people — Hmong and non-Hmong — about our arts and crafts, dances, songs and history. We are open to teaching adults wanting to know more about us, our history, intersection with Americans during the Vietnam War, and our progressive current communities that are in pretty much all 50 states and in varying pockets across the globe,” Lor said.
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