This Saturday, Hmong American Cultural Outreach, or HACO, invites the entire Gustavus community to come celebrate Hmong New Year in Alumni Hall.

Featuring free entertainment, food, and games, the celebration will be held in the O.J. Johnson Student Union from 6 to 9 pm, and the doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

HACO, a student organization dedicated to celebrating diversity and sharing Hmong culture with the community, hosts this event every year — this year’s celebration promises not only great entertainment and fun activities, but a chance for HACO to showcase its core values.

“HACO is an organization on campus that is here to promote inclusion within culture, within race — any kind of thing that relates to diversity, and one misconception a lot of people have is that you have to be Hmong to be in HACO, and that’s not true,” HACO co-president Annie Vang said.

“We’re really here to support people of all backgrounds, and make sure that people have a place to go if they feel like they don’t fit in anywhere.”

HACO Historian and Public Relations Executive Ka Zoua Moua echoed the sentiment, pointing out that events like Hmong New Year allow HACO to represent the Hmong community here at Gustavus.

“We also want to give the Saint Peter community an opportunity to experience our culture and to acknowledge the Hmong culture on campus,” Moua said. “It allows us Hmong students to explore more within our culture individually and share our experiences with one another.”

Hmong New Year occurs once a year and is traditionally celebrated at the end of the harvesting season, representing a time of celebration after all of the year’s hard work.

“As you can imagine, you work really hard throughout the year to farm and pick your crops, and then once everything is harvested, you get to finally enjoy all of your hard work”, Vang said. “So traditionally, there’s a lot of food, a lot of games, entertainment, you get to show off your hard work and all the clothes you’ve been working on…and so it’s really important just to reflect on your year and enjoy the things that you’ve worked so hard for.”

This year, HACO is bringing in two guest performers for Hmong New Year: Hmong singer Maa Vue, who will perform at the after-party, and keynote speaker Tou Ger Bennett Xiong, a popular Hmong comedian, entertainer, and activist who will talk about his background and touch on this year’s theme of “Exploring Your Roots.”

“We kind of came up with this theme because we wanted to kind of relate it back to respecting your elders and knowing your history,” Vang said. “Knowing where you are today and how history has reflected on to that, how history has impacted that.”

This theme also has to do with rekindling old Hmong traditions and looking at how American culture has and continues to impact the Hmong community today.

“We are slowly losing our Hmong traditions as the younger generations are adapting to the American culture,” Moua said. “Therefore, people that attend this event can expect to see the differences between the old and the new generation.”

The night will also feature singing and dancing, traditional Hmong food, a photo booth, a fashion show in which students will model traditional Hmong dress, and opportunities for guests to participate in traditional games and win prizes.

These activities will give students and guests opportunities to not only delve into Hmong culture and learn about how Hmong New Year is usually celebrated, but also to hear traditional music and try Hmong cuisines, including a special drink dessert that, according to Lee, almost resembles bubble tea.

“This is a special event for us Hmong students on campus because it is what we love about our culture and are always looking forward to,” Moua said.

“It’s an opportunity for us to showcase our culture to other people and it is always a memorable occasion to share with the Saint Peter community.”

All in all, with food, games, performances, and fun, Hmong New Year promises to be an exciting, engaging event for the entire Gustavus community, and HACO encourages everyone to come and celebrate.

“It’s going to give you a taste of the Hmong culture,” Vang said.

“And it’s going to show you a little bit of who we are.”