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Dec. 13, 2003, 4:12PM
11/18/04 11:36 PM
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In Hmong society, simple ball
game leads to marriage
By DANIEL LOVERING
Associated Press
BAN HAI HIN, Laos -- It seems a simple game of
catch, but for Kanee Neengmai each toss of the tennis
ball is filled with portent.
Wearing a traditional costume of layered cloth
decorated with beads and jingling silver coins, the 17year-old ethnic Hmong eyes the young man standing
about 10 feet from her on a dirt track in this village in
northeastern Laos, sizing him up as a potential suitor.
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"Handsome or not, I don't care," she says, gently
throwing the pale green ball to his hands. "I just want
a boy that likes me."
It was the first day of the Hmong New Year, a festival
celebrated at various times in November and
December after the rice harvest and a time for teenage
girls to don ceremonial outfits and go out to meet
prospective mates in a courtship ritual known as pov
pob, or throwing the ball.
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The game -- an ice-breaker for Hmong youths -- is
played during all three days of the New Year
festivities, which for the non-romantically inclined
include water buffalo fights, rice whiskey drinking,
elaborate feasts and a rest from toiling in the fields.
According to Hmong lore, the New Year celebrates
the victory of a mythical hero over an evil spirit that
ate Hmong people in ancient times. There is a Hmong
calendar, but there are many versions, so the festival is
held at various times in Hmong communities.
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The holiday began Nov. 24 this year in Ban Hai Hin,
a village of about 300 people nestled in the lush
mountains of Xieng Khuang province, just over 100
miles northeast of the Laotian capital, Vientiane.
The area was a battleground during the Vietnam War,
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HoustonChronicle.com - In Hmong society, simple ball game leads to marriage
11/18/04 11:36 PM
when many Hmong joined a CIA-backed army to
fight communist guerrillas.
After the war, thousands of former Hmong soldiers
resettled with their families in the United States, where
many still observe ancestral traditions and send money
back to relatives in Laos in exchange for New Year
dresses.
The Hmong, an ethnic minority representing less than
10 percent of Laos' population of nearly 6 million, are
a tough, rural people who have lived for centuries in
mountain settlements away from the country's
dominant lowlanders, or Lao Loum.
The New Year is a time when Hmong begin a new
chapter of life, and it is considered a highly auspicious
time for courtship.
"I want to get married because I like her," said Xay
Xua, a 16-year-old boy, adjusting his denim jacket
and tossing a pov pob ball to a bejeweled girl named
Bria, who held an umbrella to shade herself. "I throw
the ball because this time of year is very important."
Hmong generally participate in the ritual beginning at
age 15. They once used soft cloth balls filled with
kapok, and a couple might toss the ball for all three
days of the festival and sometimes for as long as a
month, said Suen Suesa, a 27-year-old Hmong tour
guide.
Some Hmong girls spend several years sizing up
suitors at successive New Year festivals.
Mii Singthong, a 17-year-old who stood in a clearing
with other girls in the village of Lat Huang, said she
was willing to wait for the right suitor.
"If I don't find him this year, I can always keep
looking next year," she said.
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