Highlights:
- Auspicious and inauspicious time for different rituals
- The origin of why you should not point finger at crescent moon
- Auspicious and ill-omened timing for Hmong culture.
Auspicious time for different rituals
Burying the dead
Let's us discuss about ailments first. If on the 5th day of the new moon and if there is an elder passed away and was also buried on that day, there is a taboo that other people who has also passed away during that day should not be bury on the same day. We should not bury other dead person on the 5th day, it must be avoided. Our elder has ever said that it will be overlapped. Therefore other dead person is supposed to be buried on the 6th or 7th day of the new moon to avoid overlapping. There reasons are that two dead persons cannot be buried on the same day. If this happened, the dead's descendants will experience hardship and they will succumb to illness or will not succeed in whatever fields they pursue.
Outing
If you are going for a hunt and it happens to be a bad time, for example in the morning, it would lead to a mismatching or hard to distinguish other people who are outing together. An the other person might see you as their target animal. And therefore that person might shoot their partner due to thinking that person is a bear.
But if we are outing at an auspicious time during afternoon at 2 pm onward - you would face no challenges. We will not come across any trouble. That is what would happen on auspicious and bad timing.
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Zodiac animals and auspicious time
Marriage party
When we mention about marriage rituals, we will go on the 5th day of the new moon and will return on the 6th day. We can only do marriage party on chronological day for instance we do marriage party today at the groom's parents and we return home tomorrow not a day after tomorrow to be considered auspicious.
So we would consider inauspicious if you go to do a marriage party at your father in-law's house on the 5th and you stay for another day (day 6th) and returning home on the 7th day. That is Hmong tradition that has been practicing since the dawn of our ancestral existence, and it has been passing down from generations to generations since the existence of Gao Joua (Princess Joua) and Prince Nar.
When we mention about utilizing the moon and the sun in ''ua neeb ua yaig'' - doing shaman and rituals. For doing shaman to bring an elder's soul and spirit back from the underworld - we have to do it accordingly to the auspicious time of the sun and the moon and the rotation of these planets to enable the shaman wizard to rescue the soul of that person.
How the story of crescent moon cutting earlobe comes into its existence
If you ask me why do we have to find the auspicious time of the sun and the moon, and why if you point finger to the crescent moon your earlobe will be cut?
I simply don't have an answer for you. According to what my grand mother told me - Once upon a time, there are Gao Joua (Princess Joua) and Prince Nar. The are married and the father in - law is a very restricted person and did evil things toward the bride and sexually abused her. Therefore the family is trying to hide the bride (Gao Joua) in the attic so the father in - law cannot find her. But one day, while she came down for toileting, the father realized that she is being hidden up in the attic all along. Since then the father is restricted not to go up to the attic. So there is a curse that if the father still goes up to the attic, may he get struck by lightning or his earlobe be cut by a crescent moon as a punishment. However, we can prevent ourselves from getting lightning struck or earlobe being cut if we accidently point our finger to the crescent moon and there is someone is rescuing us by saying ''we have applied chicken or pig feces to the person's earlobe so it will not be cut by the crescent moon.'' That is how this story came about.
During my childhood I pointed finger to crescent moon and overnight I got my earlobe cut. Is that still the case now if someone points finger to a crescent moon?
Our elders say that the reason why some one's ear lope is being cut, it is because there is nobody saying the word ''We have already applied chicken and pig feces to that person's ear so the moon cannot cut his/her earlobe. Therefore that person's earlobe was cut by a crescent moon.
Long time ago, our grand mother's son - Keng's earlbpe was also cut by a crescent moon. It actually happened. So in my childhood I had witnessed one person who experienced this situation.
''Last night he pointed finger at a crescent moon and did not apply chicken or pig feces to his earlobe, that is why it was cut."
Auspicious time or ill-omened time could bring either fortune or calamity
Whenever you are planning to go some where, you should find an auspicious time. When you check chicken feet (a chicken that is sacrifice for soul calling - killed and cooked) and if its feet is not curving nicely as it should, that would indicates an unfortunate situation awaiting to happen if you are going some where. For instance, if you are outing somewhere during an ill-omened time, you could have a car accident, or other people could mistaken you as their target and they could shoot you by accident (if you go hunting) as they are being possessed by a super natural force to camouflage you are their target.
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Zodiac animals and auspicious time
But if the young generations doesn't know how to calculate an auspicious time anymore, what would happen or what should they do?
If they don't know - i.e I came to do a soul calling ceremony in some one's house - and I said that if the chicken feet is unpromising - I would warn them to drive more carefully.
But nowadays if young people doesn't really know what is auspicious or inauspicious time and doesn't care about it anymore, whether it is an unfavorable time, then it should be fine.
Elder people are really pay attention to an auspicious time when they go somewhere. They always calculate the most auspicious time to struck their luck, and its actually happened to be true accordingly.
The healing power of shaman spirit
When we discuss about ailments or doing shaman - as a shaman I actually don't see any ghost or spirit. But to be frank, the power of my shaman spirit that is actually help. If you ask me to do a shaman ritual to heal your child, it is also depends on the power of my shaman spirit. When I arrived and I bake the rice popcorn, and citing the power of 'Kuam' - the horn tools that used to help soul calling - would indicate that that person's soul fell in or sleeping in or falling in that particular place or in the realm of death. Then you will know that you have to sacrifice an animal and how many piece of paper money to do the ritual. And so we will use that animal (hog) to rescue the spirit of that person. When I did the ritual, my shaman spirit would raise your child's soul to return to human's realm then that child is cured. I don't even see any spirit or ghost to be frank. Other shamans who do rituals might say that they see whatever, but me personally when I did shaman, I see nothing. Just the power of my shaman spirit that counts.
But do we need an auspicious time for soul calling ritual too?
When we migrated to this country, some people don't really follow the soul calling ritual as it should be anymore, and they change the ritual time as they see fits. I personally don't like doing soul calling during the evening. Actually if you do soul calling for a new-born baby, it is supposed to be done in the morning. So when we immigrate to this country we tend to do soul calling in the evening. It is because we are too busy to do in the morning so we just do it for the sake of convenience. But traditionally, it is best we carry out this ritual in the morning.
And about the same goes to shaman ritual as well - if you set up and getting ready for the the ritual early, I will arrive at least 9 am or 10 am so I can start doing shaman ritual and I will do it. But if it is over 12 am, I will not do it because I can not rescue your child's soul. It is said that the power of the shaman spirit are there to enable me to rescue the soul.
Does auspicious time or conceiving time have anything to do with pregnant women or those women that are soon to give birth?
It depends on when that lady is consulting with doctor probably she may forget when does she start to conceive. In general if the baby was a boy it usually born on the even day and if it is a girl, she will be born on odd day.
For example if I am now getting sick and it occurs during Yin energy (female time) then it is a little bit hard to cure me. And the opposite if a women is getting sick during Yang energy (male time), it is also difficult to treat as well.
Therefore when some one is getting sick, it is better for women not to fall ill during Yang energy and man not to get sic during Ying energy - vice versa.
And so if the illness does not fall into this situation, either doing shaman, or using medication or whatever means to cure will work.
If the sickness start in Yin energy already though I do the shaman ritual, and I would not inform you the truth and it is likely that that person will not be cured. It is likely that there is only 50 percent chance of getting better but 90 percent chance of getting worst.
But if someone is getting sick during Yang energy, probably that person can be cured but it also requires lots of medication or have to do many shaman rituals.
Therefore when we migrated to this country (Australia), we rarely utilize our traditional treatment but rely most ly on modern medication and modern treatment.
Is there anything you would like to adds to Hmong rituals that are related to waxing or wanning moon?
If you are planning to do something or go somewhere, rather go today and come back the next day. But if you go today and come back one day after tomorrow, it is not ideal. If you would like to go, please go on the 5th day of the new moon, not day 6th or day 7th, they are not the auspicious time. But if you really want to go then please go on the 15th day or the 25th day.
As a shaman we are taught that is what we should do. If you go on those days, they are very auspicious timing. So doing ritual which is related to spirit will always using odd number and using even number for human realm.
If you want to go somewhere in the morning but you feel restless, please do not go, probably it is an ill-omened timing. But if you want to go and you feel full heartedly then just go it should be fine.
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