The Hmong New Year begins after the harvest season in December. They kill pigs as an offering to their ancestors and household spirits on the first day followed by a visit to cousins and party for a few days. The crops and its health is enthusiastically celebrated during this time.
The Lisu celebrate their Lisu New Year along with the Chinese and it is called Gin Waw. They celebrate New Year by distilling corn-spirit, making their typical dessert and preparing to kill the pigs for use in the ceremony along with cooking some food to welcome Lisu New Year. The men in each family decorate
The Lahu tribe, celebrate their Lahu New Year for around four days between March and April. This is divided into the Male and Female New Year. The Lahu New Year first day is dedicated to a ceremony of worshipping ancestors, the second day brings families together, where they distribute a dessert made of steam sticky
The Karen New Year is celebrated generally in February before growing rice. The time to celebrate Karen New Year is decided by the village witch doctor. The tradition usually involves the village sorcerer binding every villager’s wrist with a sacred thread, while the head of each family brings their own spirit as an offering. The
The production of opium has been illegal in Thailand since 1959, and with concerted attempts by the government to eliminate it, the size of the crop has been reduced by eighty percent in the last decade, to around twenty tons per year. Opium nevertheless remains an important cash crop of the Hmong, Yao, Lahu and