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Rites in the lifetime of H’mong people

The paper describes rites taking place in the lifetime of a H’mong person in Vietnam at present, including: the birth-giving rite, the rite of choosing adopted parents; the second-naming rite for men, and the funeral rite. According to the author, the rites in the lifetime of a H’mong person have changed both positively and negatively. The State should have appropriate policies to preserve and develop positive cultural values, while minimizing unsound customs in those rites. | Rites in the Lifetime. RITES IN THE LIFETIME OF H’MONG PEOPLE NGUYEN THI SONG HA * HO XUAN DINH ** Abstract: The paper describes rites taking place in the lifetime of a H’mong person in Vietnam at present, including: the birth-giving rite, the rite of choosing adopted parents; the second-naming rite for men, and the funeral rite. According to the author, the rites in the lifetime of a H’mong person have changed both positively and negatively. The State should have appropriate policies to preserve and develop positive cultural values, while minimizing unsound customs in those rites. Key words: Rites in the lifetime, birth-giving, marriage, funeral, naming, choosing names. By now, H’mong people in our country have still kept many traditional rites in the lifetime that are full of their culturally distinguished features. Some rites have, however, changed in accordance with the modern society. Following is the description of the major rites taking place in the lifetime of H’mong people in Vietnam at present. 1. Birth-giving Rite In preparation for the birth-giving, H’mong people in Dien Bien Province usually make the worship called "uo nenhz kho” to pray for a successful birth-giving. When the mother is about to give birth, she sits on the ground next to the end of the bed. The delivery is carried out by her mother in law, her younger sister in law, her husband’s sister in law, her husband, or some woman from the same village. H’mong people think it is easy to carry out deliveries and anyone can do it. Consequently, they usually give birth at home instead of doing it at the clinic, except for special cases. At present, some of H’mong women, who are going to give birth soon, still have to work hard in the field. As a result, some of them even gave birth right in the field, indeed. For difficult labors in the past, the birthgiving women were considered not to have behaved well towards their parents-in-law, according to the misconception of H’mong people. The women,