The 17th annual Hmong Thanksgiving took place on Nov. 21 to a gathering of about 340 people. The event, sponsored by the Hmong Club, featured Hmong food, traditional Asian dances and a slide show featuring the Hmong Club members.

Pusaporn Tabrizi, adviser for the Multicultural Educational Resource Center and to the Hmong Club, believes that it’s important for the Hmong Club to host this event because it brings people and cultures together.

“It is important because Hmong Club students choose to have the Thanksgiving program to thank the campus community for their support to the Hmong Club students throughout the year,” Tabrizi said. “This is the way that students express their appreciation to everyone.”

Chancellor Markee gave opening and closing remarks, and audience members enjoyed the dancing performances presented by G. J. Fan’s Dance Performance, Repla’s Dance Performance and N Txais Koom Siab’s Dance Performance. Der Lor also performed traditional Hmong songs with contemporary guitars.

“I like that it ranged from young adult performers to very young performers,” Coree’ Burton, Porter Hall Resident Director, said. “It was also nice to see how these dances have had an influence on current popular dancing in the US.”

The event also featured a fashion show that highlighted the different dress styles of the different regions of Hmong heritage.

Burton was surprised by the amount of people who showed up to the event and pleased to see the numbers of students were so high.

“It was nice to see so many people so up to a Friday evening event,” Burton said. “This shows students that there are great things that happen here on the weekend.”

The Thanksgiving celebration, with the mixture of Hmong culture allowed some students to have an educational experience while sampling Asian cuisine.

“The Thanksgiving dinner is an opportunity both for the Hmong on campus to celebrate their heritage and for non-Hmong to be invited and feel wecome at the event,” Mara Bechwar, senior computer science major, said. “I think the idea is to foster a feeling of solidarity between cultures in an atmosphere that is at least somewhat familiar to both.”

Tabrizi said that it’s important for the Hmong to sponsor the event, not only to help educate people about the Hmong culture but also for the Hmong members to get to know one another.

“Students, staff and faculty should attend the program not only to support Hmong club but also to learn about their culture and to get to know the Hmong students,” Tabrizi said.