Girls draped in bright, traditional fabrics and silver beads tossed tennis balls to boys in Aeropostale and PacSun sweatshirts as Hmong and English words blended together in the Appleton East High School cafeteria.

More than 1,500 people attended the Fox Cities Hmong New Year on Saturday. The event was a reunion, feast, celebration and cultural mishmash.

Grandparents and parents, most of whom came to the United States in the late 1970s as refugees after the Vietnam War, said the day is a chance to remind the younger generations of their cultural roots.

Traditional garb was perhaps the most visible reminder of the Hmong heritage.

Yer Chang's outfit was covered in hundreds of silver coin-shaped beads. Her mother had sewn on every last one, an effort that took a year.

"It's wearing your parents' sweat and blood," Chang said. Her mother couldn't recall how many dresses she's made for relatives, but said more than 10.

Chang, 17, of Appleton, was holding a bouquet of roses a young man had given her — back in the old days, she would be courted at Hmong New Year. Part of the ceremony is bringing eligible young men and women together.

The East cafeteria was filled with lines of children and teens playing pov pob, a game where you toss a ball at someone you like and hope he or she throws it back. At least that's what it used to mean; now many people in the cafeteria seemed to be just tossing the balls for fun.

Hmong New Year's traditions have evolved in America, said Dr. Salad Vang, of Appleton, who was the finance chairman for the event.

In Asia, Hmong people were scattered across the mountains and tribes would walk all day to gather for New Year's — where they would celebrate happily, putting all the bad things that occurred that year behind them and hoping for a better crop next year. Now, they wish for a better job or to be paid more in the coming year, he said.

Vang wore a suit and tie, but proudly displayed the pieces of white yarn tied around his wrist, each a blessing from someone who wished him well in the next year. The doctor shook hands with patients he knew as they passed in front of him in the high school gym, looking at a cultural display chronicling the Hmong past.

He pointed at one poster with a picture of a woman reaching out a bus window as she left someplace, or someone, behind.

"This is just like the bus we rode on," he said.

Like more than 100,000 Hmong, Vang moved to a refugee camp in Thailand when communists overtook Laos, killing the Hmong, who had helped the United States fight in the Vietnam War. Vang moved to Thailand in 1973, when he was five years old, and lived in the camp for five more years before his family moved to Chicago.

He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, eventually became a doctor, and now lives in Appleton. He's one of many refugees who ended up in Wisconsin, which has one of the nation's largest Hmong populations, along with California and Minnesota.

"We're trying to take this opportunity to live the American dream … we've suffered a lot and the things around us we appreciate," Vang said.

Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna attended the New Year celebration, and acknowledged the sacrifice of the Hmong and aid they gave to the United States in a speech that was very "heartwarming," Vang said.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and other public officials also came to the event and watched the cultural fashion show, one of many events Saturday, including traditional songs, a talent show and dance performance.

The events were held in the gym, and the halls outside were packed with vendors selling food, CDs and cosmetic products from across the world. There was also a Recall Walker booth that was busy throughout the day gathering signatures on petitions seeking the recall of Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

A congressional aide at the event told signature gatherer Claire Knudsen that what they were doing was "tacky," Knudsen said. But Kor Xiong, who was on the planning committee for the event, said the Hmong community invited the petitioners.

Xiong, the president of Hmong Wisconsin Radio, wore colorful, traditionally patterned clothes and on his head was a stuffed Uncle Sam-style top hat in red, white and blue.

"You are one master in two cultures," said Lo Lee, executive director of the Hmong American Partnership in Appleton, after reflecting on the balance between the two backgrounds.

When traveling outside the United States, you have to represent and be able to explain the cultures equally, he said as he surveyed the crowded cafeteria filled with generations of Hmong.

"I'm American 100 percent, I'm Hmong 100 percent," Lee said.

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