May 12

Written by:
5/12/2011 9:45 PM 

May 21st is fast approaching. Many may not know what May 21, 2011 is, but many believes that this is the Second Coming of Christ. I'm not religious or concerned about the event, but many of the Hmong do.

This reminds me of the Y2k. News media were portraying that the Y2K glitch were going to cause mass distruptions and some believed that the world was going to end. How did this event affect the Hmong? During that time, many of the Hmong sold their homes, pulled their children out of schools, stored food rations and water, gas and other materials to survive should something happened. The worst was the families that moved back to Laos or Thailand believing that if they were to die, it would be better dead in your place of birth. Y2k came and nothing happened.

We now have another one, May 21, 2011. I've heard from a few rumors going around in the Hmong community for people to repent and be saved. Since our culture is not a singular religion, there is a rift between the "old" belief and the "new". Some of the "new" have been going around the community telling people to prepare for the end. The "old" are asking the "new" if May 21 comes and goes without any problems, would that validate that their belief is wrong.

Hmong religions are consider as "old" or "kev ncaiv qub" and "new" or "kev ncaiv tsiab". The "old" is the shaman and ancestors while the "new" is the Bible. Each has it's importance in the community. This split is enough to make families exclude each other at family gathering or funerals. With May 21 approaching, this has once again poses a who is right and who is wrong.

What's your thought May 21, 2011?