1. “When a person died, it was best to do the funeral as soon as possible due to the lack of any way to preserve the body. But we also needed to consult the Hmong lunar calendar to make sure we were picking the best date as well as avoid any anniversary death / burial dates. So sometimes funerals could get pushed out as far as ten days. Having the funeral this far out brought with it a different level of emotions and exhaustion as you had to deal with the physical state of the body in addition to your feelings of grief and loss.” - Kha Xiong, St. Paul
2. Rituals of funerals in the camp are continued from generations of customs in Laos and before that, China.
3. Carrying the deceased to the burial site. At the camp edge, only the men continued, and the women and children stayed behind.
4. When they have finished the rites, the man in charge of the drum and qeej return home. Back then, you performed these rites free of charge in your village. For their time and effort, they are gifted a section of the cow ribs to carry home. Just a section of ribs was enough for their wife and children waiting at home for their father who had been gone a few days.
5. In regards to the funeral drum, there were some families who owned and rented drums. When the rites were finished, the drum would be returned.
6.At ceremonies, men usually eat together. Women eat after with children.
7. Hmong people believe in reincarnation. In Hmong funeral rites, they sing of death as a voyage back to their ancestors.