They only meet all together once a year, and when they do Global Groove Life's master sewer Pi Jane's family dances together. A Lahu New Year festival with Pi Jane today, where the Chiang Mai Lahu group welcomes those from surrounding Lahu villages to celebrate. To keep New Year traditions alive, the day is spent dancing in traditional clothes around three trees. The banana tree for its fruitfulness, the sugar cane for its sweetness, and a pine tree to symbolize the turn in season. The day is spent dancing laughing, playing music, eating and welcoming villagers from surrounding areas as they arrive.
When they get together they sing. though I don't speak Burmese, I can tell their songs aren't about the words as they seem more to be reflections of their state of being. Celebrating NYE with Global Groover Adun and her Lisu family shows me that celebration can be a state of being. What can you celebrate with your being this year?
