Hmong Rituals: Birth, Marriage, Death, Healing
Hmong Birth: Welcoming the Baby
The Hmong people believe that the Dab Pog, a spirit world couple, are responsible for bringing children to their Hmong parents. As the story goes, a young girl felt ready to get married yet her parents did not approve of it. The parents made a pact with the Dab Pog and the Xwm Kab, household spirits, to stall her marriage. The daughter asked both the Dab pog and the Xwm Kab to allow her to marry and both refused her, but she was persistent and eventually the Dab Pog agreed and told her that they would cast a spell on her parents into deep sleep so that she can sneak out and marry. The daughter did this and was married off. The next morning the parents woke up so enraged at the Dab Pog that the spirit couple left.1
Because of this, the Dab Pog no longer surrounds the house like the Xwm Kab. But still, whenever a child is born, there must be a Hu Plig ceremony to call the Dab Pog to come welcome the baby into the house and to thank them for blessing the couple with the baby.
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Dia Cha, "The Hmong 'Dab Pog Couple' Story and its Significance in Arriving at an Understanding of Hmong Ritual" Hmong Studies Journal 2003, 4:1-20↩
Hu Plig, Soul Calling Ritual
She grabbed a large hooped rattle-like tool called the txiab neeb and her kuam, the divination horns. She stood at the front door with her tools, two live chickens and an egg placed in a rice bowl with incense. Read more…
Ua Neeb: What’s Wrong with This Little Girl’s Spirit?
When a family member falls ill, the head of a household calls upon a local shaman, who determines the cause of that family member’s illness in what is called an ua neeb. Read more…
The Hmong House: The Location of Shamanic Ritual
Hmong Shamanism is practiced in the private homes of members of the Hmong community, tucked away in cities like Minneapolis and Saint Paul. According to Ya Po Cha, “every Hmong home is a shrine”, and so, to begin to understand the religious sites where Hmong Shamanism is practiced, it is pivotal to know the components of the conventional Hmong home. Read more…
Hmong Food in Rituals
Food plays a very important role in Shamanistic rituals. Usually, the animal that is being sacrificed would become the meal for the guests, but nowadays, some Hmong families order outside food in order to save time. American life is too fast-paced for kinship. Read more…
Traditional Hmong Wedding
Hmong weddings are taken seriously within the Hmong community. Following the traditions derived from Lialue and Trumee who were “the two sons of the siblings who survived the great flood which cleansed humanity”, Hmong weddings typically take two days and one night to complete.Instead of the focus being on the bride and groom, Hmong weddings are about uniting Read more...
Hmong Traditional Funeral
Hmong people see the death of a loved one as a very important part of life. Of course they are not happy about the death but “death is the transition for the human soul” (Cha, 1968 p. 101). The usual Hmong funeral is held for three days and nights. Read more…
