{"id":512803,"date":"2026-01-13T09:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T09:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/512803\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T09:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T09:20:26","slug":"karen-new-years-celebration-draws-immigrant-community-together-in-philly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/512803\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen New Year\u2019s celebration draws immigrant community together in Philly"},"content":{"rendered":"

While many Philadelphians rang in America\u2019s 250th with the Mummers<\/a> or at the inaugural NYE concert on the Parkway<\/a>, one immigrant community celebrated the new year a few days later. And the party wasn\u2019t for 2026; it was for 2765.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKaren New Year is a really precious day for us, because Karen people are all over internationally \u2014 not only in the United States,\u201d said Naw Doh, executive director of the Karen Community Association of Philadelphia (KCAP).<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cWe are one unit. We respect our Karen New Year. We want to keep our culture \u2014 to pass this to [the next] generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philly\u2019s Karen (kuh-REN) refugee community \u2014 an ethnic minority from Myanmar (formerly Burma), who have faced decades of persecution, armed conflict and displacement \u2014 has been growing over the past two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Karen New Year\u2019s celebration is a national holiday that the community fought to establish in 1938. It takes place on the first day of Pyathoe, an annual cultural celebration marking the end of the rice harvest, and represents rest, reflection and renewal. The event usually falls somewhere between December and January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karen people across Pennsylvania traveled to the Bok building to take part last Saturday. Around 250 people piled into the building\u2019s auditorium for the celebration, wearing festive Karen dress: handwoven tunics in bright colors with geometrical patterns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the day, the stage featured traditional dance and musical performances, as well as speeches from community leaders, including State Senator Nikil Saval and Councilmember Mark Squilla.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval at the Karen National New Year party. (Julia Binswnager\/ Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

\u201cHonoring Karen New Year is a way to honor ourselves and each other,\u201d Saval said. \u201cThis year, immigrant communities across the country and here in Philadelphia have experienced singular hardships. And in response, these communities \u2014 our communities \u2014 have shown all Americans what it means to be in solidarity with one another and to practice care for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The joy of an immigrant group celebrating openly and together in a shared space was palpable. Mu Kpaw, a Karen community leader in Lancaster, traveled to Philly for the celebration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very blessed to be here in the U.S., because we feel like the U.S. is our home,\u201d he said. \u201cBack in our homeland \u2014 back in Burma or Thailand \u2014 we are relocating. We are a displaced people \u2026 Coming here, we have a stable home, stable job. We work for a living.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that recently, people in his community have been reaching out to him with questions, worrying about their immigration status.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to bring ourselves together, especially for this type of event,\u201d Kpaw said. \u201cWe try to forget about all the things happening right now around us \u2014 especially immigration \u2026 We have people who are citizens. They are still afraid. Non-citizens, they are still afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmember Squilla highlighted the political weight of the gathering, especially given the current national climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring these times of uncertainty and whether people are accepted in our country, know that Philadelphia is always a welcoming city and will work with you and help to protect you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s 2765 Karen New Year celebration almost did not happen. The gathering switches locations around the state every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes Philadelphia one year, Allentown, Lancaster, and then this year was supposed to be Lancaster,\u201d said Rebecca Winkler, a sociocultural anthropology Ph.D candidate at the University of Pennsylvania and KCAP leader. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t quite have all the infrastructure to do it, so we had to jump into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group only had a little over a month to plan and find a location for the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBok was really amazing,\u201d Winkler said. \u201cThey gave us the space for free, which is amazing. And they provided staff to help us, so we have a lot of help, but everyone had to work very hard over the holidays at the last minute to get it all together in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc8c Love Philly? Sign up for the free Billy Penn daily newsletter and stay in the know<\/p>\n

This included dozens of community members staying up well into the night before to decorate the auditorium, and others cooking late to create the large buffet of stewed meats, spiced noodles and veggies home-grown in community gardens.<\/p>\n

\"\"Karen New Year celebrations are held on the first day of Pyathoe to mark and celebrate the end of the harvest. (Julia Binswanger\/ Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to be fresh,\u201d Winkler said. \u201cYou can\u2019t prepare the food multiple days in advance, so all the food was made in the last 12 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The celebration had Karen members of all ages present, from little ones in strollers to community elders who were honored at the event. Almost everyone was in traditional dress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKaren people, they are very simple people,\u201d Naw Day said, explaining the meaning behind the clothing. \u201cYou see the front and behind is the same, so no matter if you are female or male \u2014 you all are the same. Nothing [is] different.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the party carried on, anyone who wanted to take the stage was allowed \u2014 and many did so without hesitation. Teenagers got up to dance as their friends cheered them on. A variety of singers, from young girls to grown men, took the mic and began to croon.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want not only our Karen community, [but] every immigrant or every ethnic people to keep their culture,\u201d said Naw Day. \u201cIt\u2019s very important. You have to know who you are, and you have to pass it along to [the next] generation, so they don\u2019t forget who you are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd70 Nice to see you. \ud83e\udd70
(Instead of a paywall)<\/p>\n

Local news should be free and accessible, which is why we ask readers like you to support our work rather than charging a fee to see it. If BP helped inform you, join as a member today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many Philadelphians rang in America\u2019s 250th with the Mummers or at the inaugural NYE concert on the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":512804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,229149,6501,409,146174,146175,210562,1448,2830,1311,3096,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-512803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bok-building","10":"tag-immigrants","11":"tag-immigration","12":"tag-karen-community-association-of-philadelphia","13":"tag-karen-people","14":"tag-new-years","15":"tag-pa","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-refugees","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115887054926514839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}