Hmong families delay funerals to wait out social distancing rules

Glenwood Funeral Home recently hosted a small funeral for Chue Yang. The funeral home was decorated by another family, which had to postpone a loved one’s funeral in March. Photos by David Pierini

By David Pierini Staff Reporter

If a Hmong funeral is not conducted according to tradition, many families fear the soul of the deceased may never find its way home. 

So when Minnesota ordered strict social distancing protocols in March to slow the spread of COVID-19, many Hmong families put funerals on hold until their large families could properly gather to honor a loved one’s passing.

Some 30 Hmong funerals are now delayed in the Twin Cities until mass gathering restrictions are lifted, according to one mortician who handles arrangements for them. North Minneapolis’s Glenwood Funeral Home, one of four in the cities that specializes in serving Hmong families, has four postponed funerals, including one that was scheduled to take place the first full day of Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home orders.

Funeral homes continue to offer services, but can allow no more than 10 people in the building at a time to pay their respects.

“Many [Hmong] families don’t want to do it with 10 people,” said Vong Yang, owner of the Glenwood Funeral Home. “These are huge families and if it means storing the body, they will wait.”

“This is a little bit of a struggle for the families. In the Asian community, they don’t want to hold the body that long and so they are concerned. They call and check, maybe once a week, to make sure the body is still in good condition,” he added.

Glenwood Funeral Home remains decorated for a funeral that was to take place on March 28. Decorative covers adorn chairs and silvery translucent banners hang gently from the ceiling. Expensive flower arrangements were in place and the meat of an entire cow was being prepared to feed guests and mourners.

Photos from the life of Chue Yang at Glenwood Funeral Home.

Paul Maher, a St. Paul mortician who works with Glenwood Funeral Home and two other Hmong funeral homes, said he has had Hmong families come to visit their deceased family members. His facility includes a cooler that can store 75 bodies.

“I had one family come yesterday because it was the person’s birthday, their dad,” Maher said. “The funeral was supposed to be a month ago. They came and celebrated his birthday, five of them. They have 11 kids. The family  had them on a Zoom call on their phone and they all sang Happy Birthday.”

North News was unable to get in touch with the families awaiting services through Glenwood Funeral Home.

A funeral is the most sacred ceremony in Hmong culture and it is not unusual for families to take a month to plan a one, said Maher. Food is ordered to feed as many as 500 people, many of whom need time to make travel arrangements. Family will spend two days just decorating the funeral home. The family also dresses their loved one for a journey they hope reunites them with their ancestors. 

Food includes a whole cow and a pig because some believe these animals can guide the deceased to the afterlife. 

Hmong families turn to funeral homes like Glenwood because an owner like Yang understands the importance of the family taking charge of the arrangements. 

But the postponed funerals puts a financial pinch on him. Where many funeral homes want payment upfront. Yang waits out of respect until after a service to bill a family.

Last Wednesday (most Hmong funerals are on Saturdays), Glenwood hosted a small funeral for a Northside woman, who happens to be related to Yang. The small number of families gathering wore masks and sat far apart amidst another family’s decorations. 

Not all Hmong families strictly adhere to the tradition of an elaborate funeral. Some younger generations, Yang said, opt for a service that is simple. Some families, where a dying loved one could communicate their wishes, ask family members not to wait.

“The people who know they’re going to die, know we are in a pandemic,”  Yang said. “They say, ‘I know where I’m going so don’t do much.’”