Hmong people have a culture built on

animistic Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, ...

beliefs and a strong faith that after death the soul reincarnates as one of many forms such as humans, plants, rocks and ghosts (Goetz par. 1, 12). Death is often considered the most important time for practicing rituals in the Hmong community because without practicing the necessary rituals the soul will roam for eternity. Hmong culture has been around for thousands of years and some of the rituals have slightly changed due to immigration and urbanization. Throughout time rituals have always varied from tribe to tribe therefore there is no one-way of performing the pre-funeral rituals, the burial rituals and the post burial rituals. However, the differences are minor and are aimed at achieving the same goal of

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is ...

Background

The funeral is the most elaborate of all Hmong

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

s. The overall goal of the performed rituals is to guide the

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

back to the placental jacket, or motherland, then to Heaven to ask for reincarnation.

Description

After death, the body is bathed by the sons or daughters of the deceased while

extended family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem ...

members are notified and begin to travel to the home of the dead relative (Tapp 81). After the body is washed it is dressed in only new ceremonial burial clothes. The deceased is dressed accordingly to their sex for the ceremony. Women ceremonial clothing is the regular traditional Hmong Clothes but the dress is made out of a tree and the back of the shirt would have a bigger embroidery square compared to the original ones. For men they get to wear a long shirt or gown that is made from a stiff fabric along with embroideries. Burial clothing includes hand-made hempshoes that help the soul across the caterpillar river and over the

green worm mountain Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

on the quest for their

ancestors An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from w ...

(“Death”).

Length

Funerals in the Hmong culture can last anywhere from three to twelve days depending on a number of variables. The main factor in determining the length of the funeral is choosing a good day to be buried. Another variable that alters the length of the funerals is present day laws. Western laws regarding treatment of cadavers and animal sacrificing have resulted in a change from the traditional ceremony (Falk, par. 12). The final variable concerning funeral duration is the way in which the deceased has passed. For

infants An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

and victims of violent deaths the body is disposed of with haste and little fuss because there are strong beliefs among the Hmong people that these deaths create negative spirits (Tapp 81). And for those who have committed suicide, their spirit roams around until they find a replacement to take their place. Supposedly, it can sometimes even lead to the spirit causing someone else to kill themselves. An essential part of the

mourning Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...

process is the three daily meals prepared by the men and women in the family. At each meal the ceremonial dish, '' laig dab'' that is composed of pork and rice, is offered to the deceased body by the eldest son, while the reed pipe instrument, called the ''

qeej Hmong music is an important part of the culture of the Hmong people, an ethnic group from southeast Asia. Because the Hmong language is Tone (linguistics), tonal, there is a close connection between Hmong music and the spoken language. Music is ...

'', plays a ceremonial song (Tapp 84). Another offering made to the spirit of the deceased is a daily animal sacrifice. Traditionally, the sacrifice has been a pig, bulls, and oxen. (Falk, par. 12). Once the offerings have been finished a lamp is lit on the dead body and male relatives retreat outside to fire three shots into the air to scare any evil spirits that may attack the house during this time of turmoil (“Death”).

Reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is ...

is a pillar of the Hmong faith. During the ceremonies it is culturally

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

to show distress, as the ceremony is not about the death of the person but the rebirth of the soul and a new life (Goetz, par. 12). The main reason the funeral rituals are performed is so that the dead will be reborn into the same family. If the rituals are not performed properly the Hmong fear that the soul will be punished by returning as a lesser form or in a different family (Tapp 84). One ritual that must be completed is the payment of the deceased debts. Any debts unpaid are thought to negatively impact the living family along with the deceased party (“Death”).

Burial

In the Hmong culture a death is an extremely important event. The burial process must be performed correctly in order to protect those living and the deceased from evil spirits that are present when there is a death. The first step in burial is

sacrificing Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly ex ...

a number of oxen that are prepared by the descendants of the deceased for a feast that the entire

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

partakes in to pay homage to the dead (“Death”). Once the body is prepared for its journey it is positioned on a table with items that will be necessary for the voyage into the afterlife. “A bottle of alcohol and a cooked chicken in the two halves of a gourd, together with a boiled egg, a

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fire ...

, a knife and a paper umbrella, will be placed by the head of the corpse” (Tapp 83). An initiatic poem, “Showing The Way” (White), is sung to help the soul on the journey to the afterlife. The body is removed from the house on a

stretcher A stretcher, gurney, litter, or pram is an apparatus used for moving patients who require medical care. A basic type (cot or litter) must be carried by two or more people. A wheeled stretcher (known as a gurney, trolley, bed or cart) is often ...

while “Song of Mounting The Way” is being played on the

(Tapp 84, 86, 87). A female from the village will then guide the

funeral procession A funeral procession is a procession, usually in motor vehicles or by foot, from a funeral home or place of worship to the cemetery or crematorium. In earlier times the deceased was typically carried by male family members on a bier or in a cof ...

with a

torch A torch is a stick with combustible material at one end, which is ignited and used as a light source. Torches have been used throughout history, and are still used in processions, symbolic and religious events, and in juggling entertainment. I ...

to “light the way” for the corpse (Tapp 85). Along the way the procession takes steps to confuse the evil spirits. This includes stopping, changing course frequently and disposing of the torch before the burial site is reached (“Death”). The final ritual before burial is the second sacred song, “The Song of Expiring Life” and informs the deceased they have passed on and need to begin the journey to the placental jacket and into the spirit world (Cha 73). The traditional burial site is on the side of a mountain where the body is placed facing west. This is because Hmong people believe that west is the direction of death and if the head is facing the east it will be blinded by the sun (Tapp 86). The placement of the grave is determine by older members of the community and depends on age, sex, and status (Tapp 85 & “Death”). Once the body has been laid in the ground and covered the stretcher used to transport the deceased to the burial site is destroyed while on lookers burn

incense Incense is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also b ...

, symbolic paper and place stones on the grave (Tapp 85 & Falk 11). The symbolic paper, folded into boats, are considered as money in the after world. Burning the paper right after the burial, means you are sending money to go with them so they won't become a hungry spirit in the after life. The final step of the burial is to construct a fence around the grave that protects the site from any harm (“Death”). The celebration will continue on the way back to the village and throughout the next three days through performing a variety of rituals that vary from

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

to tribe all with intent to honor the deceased (Tapp 85).

After burial

There is a thirteen-day mourning period in which the family of the deceased observes certain sacrifices in respect of the passed loved one. On this day a ritual is performed with intent to welcome the soul into its former home one last time before it begins the journey into the after life (Tapp 87). The soul (or recently deceased person) could also be reborn as the next child in the family through the males. Because of this, males in the family of that deceased person must not impregnate a woman between the burial day and the next two years. If they do, they must marry the female otherwise the child won't be born into the male's family, and they will lose that family member forever. Per legend, this "13 day" ritual is based on the belief that a long time ago, after 13 days of "death," the corpse would return to life again--thus there is really no death at all. However, legend has it that, nowadays, we send the soul to be "reincarnated" because the corpse cannot come back to life anymore. Sometimes when a family member passes away due to murder, on the 13th day of the burial, their spirit would come back to take the souls that killed them into the other world.

Works cited

Cha, Dia. "Teaching with Folk Stories of the Hmong."
2000. Libraries Unlimited.

PBS. ITVS. *Falk, Catherine. "Hmong Instructions to the Dead." Asian Folklore Studies os 63 (2004): 1-29. Academiv Search Premier. EBSCOhost. 14599676.
Falk, Dr. Catherine, comp. ''Music of the Hmong in Australia.''
1994. University Of Melbourne.
"History of Hmong People." Hilltribe. The Virtual Hilltribe Museum.

White, Kenneth. ''Kr'ua Ke: Showing the Way''. Bangkok: Pandora. 1983.
*Tapp, Nicholas. "Hmong Religion." ''Asian Folklore Studies'' os 48 (1989): 59-94. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hmong Funeral Hmong culture Funerals in China Funerals in Vietnam