Thanksgiving – Ja szu ja ve

In Christian villages, as all the families finish their harvest (usually around the end of the wet season) the pastor and village committee meet together to organize a day of thanksgiving. Each family brings some of their produce, be it rice, vegetables or meat, to the church. The village celebrates a church service and eats lunch together. After lunch, everyone returns to the church to sell their products. The money raised is used by the church.

Lahu New Year

While the dates of the Lahu New Year Festival vary from village to village, they usually overlap the Chinese New Year. The festival lasts for five days and is a time to visit relatives, and participate in the many hours of dancing, eating and playing games.

Young people play a courting game that involves throwing a ball to someone who catches your eye. If interest is reciprocated, the ball is caught, and the pair continues to throw the ball back and forth while chatting.

Women play a team game with small black seeds. One team lines up a row of seeds balanced on their edge. Members of the other team take turns to place a seed on top of their foot and kick, launching the seed, and aiming to knock over as many of their opponent’s pieces as possible.

Men play with large wooden spinning tops, where the aim is knock your opponent’s top out of play.

Calendar New Year

On New Year’s Eve families, and sometimes whole villages, wait together for the New Year to start. Early in the morning on the first day of the calendar new year, Lahu people visit relatives and friends and pay their respects to elders by washing the elder’s hands with warm water, and offering gifts such as sticky rice cakes and pork. The elders, in turn, bless their visitors. This custom is also sometimes carried out during Lahu New Year.