Vietnamese Immigrants Create Own Christmas Traditions

Cultural quandary No. 1: How to celebrate an American Christmas without forgetting your Vietnamese roots. Cultural quandary No. 2: How to merge Buddhism with Christmas. And cultural quandary No. 3: How to make it all fun.

The answers to all three were plain Saturday at the Santa Ana offices of the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc.: You do as the Americans do, only you do it in Vietnamese.

That’s why the 100 or so Vietnamese-American children assembled for their regular weekend class in Vietnamese language and culture sang “Hat Chuong Ngan Vang,” otherwise known as “Jingle Bells,” and why they were actually glad to be in school, even on a Saturday.

“They are trying to teach us to learn our customs,” said Tammy Tran, 14, who has been in the United States all her life, “so that if somebody asks us who we are, we can say who we are. We are Vietnamese, and we are Americans too.”

“We teach them how to do the right way, to join the mainstream,” explained Tony Doan, manager of the youth counseling and crime/drug prevention programs at the center.

“In Vietnam, we have a saying: If you have nothing to do, you will do something wrong. We keep them busy, and we teach them their culture.”

Not that the children at the center, who at Saturday’s party ranged from toddlers to teen-agers, were thinking about doing anything wrong. Catholics, Buddhists and Protestants alike sang American Christmas carols translated into Vietnamese, heard their elders talk about the cultural importance of Christmas in the United States and when all that was over, dived enthusiastically into the quintessential American tradition of opening presents.

“In Vietnam, we didn’t do this in class,” said Mai Cong, a county mental health counselor who is president of the nonprofit community organization. “Only the Catholics did. But here, we have everything--Buddhist, Protestants. Here, it is a cultural tradition.”

And Saturday’s holiday get-together was one way that the Vietnamese community was teaching its young that Vietnamese traditions can blend with American ones, with neither getting short shrift.

Thuy Ha, 13, a Buddhist, said her family had begun celebrating Christmas at home, “just to celebrate like the Americans. We are in America, so we want to be like the Americans.”

Linh Nguyen, 12, also a Buddhist, said his family started celebrating Christmas 3 years ago.

“I think it was because we were watching TV,” he said, “and we saw the Christmas trees and said, ‘Hey, that’s cool. Let’s do it too.’ ”