Year of Snake Celebrated at Santa Ana Park

Hundreds of firecrackers went off in deafening machine-gun fashion Saturday to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese new year, at Santa Ana’s Centennial Regional Park in a 2-day festival expected to draw 35,000.

The Year of the Snake is about to begin, and for the Vietnamese community of Orange County, which numbers about 120,000, it was a time of renewal. The Vietnamese new year actually starts Feb. 6, but Saturday’s Tet festival, which continues today, was the first of several celebrations scheduled throughout the county during the next few weeks.

“Tet is the renewal of everything, the start of a new cycle,” said Van Pham, a teacher from Huntington Beach. “We see it as the renewal of the universe, as well as a time for family to come together.

“To the Vietnamese, regardless of his religious background, everybody celebrates the Tet,” she said.

At Saturday’s event, the young came to honor their past and celebrate their future. Ancient custom abounded in a festival organized by the new generation--members of the Union of Vietnamese Student Assns. of Southern California.

Two old men with beards down to their chests barely winced as the firecrackers went off under the watchful eyes of Santa Ana firefighters, and young people with moussed hair and trendy garb cheered excitedly.

Pham Dinh Lieu, 85, and his friend Dinh Cao Nghi, 86, both of Santa Ana, sat in the second row for the Tet festival’s inauguration ceremonies. They listened proudly as Dung Vu, a computer science major from Cal State Fullerton and chairman of the festival, spoke in the only language they understand about honoring the past.

“We would like to wish you a happy, peaceful and prosperous new year, the Year of the Snake,” Vu said. “This festival aims at preserving the Vietnamese culture.”

“That is why they are here today,” said a friend of Lieu and Nghi, who acted as a translator for the two old men. “They expect their children, and their children’s children, to maintain their cultural heritage.”

Tet is the most significant of Vietnamese holidays--something akin to Christmas, Thanksgiving and Memorial Day all rolled into one, says the festival’s program. It is a time for Vietnamese families to reunite, dressed in their best clothes, and decorate their homes with chrysanthemums and apricot tree blossoms for good luck in the new year.

But for Vietnamese in the United States, the season is also a time to reflect on the circumstances that brought them so far from their homeland.

Pham Dinh Lieu fled his country in 1975, as did most of the 120,000 Vietnamese in Orange County. He spent his younger years working to liberate Vietnam from the French, as one of the founders of the Nationalist Party. Now, he said through his friend Dr. Pham Cao Duong, a history professor, he would like to see his country rid of the Communists.

“Since he’s now 85 years old, he does not expect to see his homeland again,” Pham Cao Duong said. “But he puts his hope in the new generation, and his children and grandchildren, who are receiving education here in the U.S., some at famous universities such as Harvard.

“The strong tradition of fighting is carried in the Vietnamese from generation to generation,” he said. “That’s the Vietnamese spirit--if you can’t achieve something in your lifetime, your children are supposed to do it, and if they cannot do it, then their children and their children have to do it.”

On Saturday at Centennial Park, the Valley High School band played the American and the Vietnamese anthems. The pungent odor of Vietnamese food wafted through the air. Young people milled about in traditional ao dais, or long dresses, over slacks, or in the trendiest of miniskirts and pastel shirts.

There were games of skill and food booths. Young and old sat side by side at wooden tables, snacking on meat on skewers and banh chung, sticky rice cakes filled with mung beans and meat.

Besides the firecracker show, there was also a martial arts demonstration and displays of arts and crafts.

There was also a tribute to the past. In a formal ceremony, young people in long blue robes and hats carried gifts of fruit, cakes, flowers and wine to an altar on a stage.

“They are gifts to our ancestors, now gone and buried, to thank them for what we are today,” Vu said.

The Thuy Nguyen, who is called Frances by her friends, is president of the student group that organized the festival. She left Vietnam when she was 12 with her mother and some of her brothers and sisters. She remembers the 4 weeks they spent on a boat, crammed together in a closet because the boat was so crowded with others fleeing the embattled country. Eventually they reached the Philippines, and went from there to a refugee camp at Camp Pendleton.

Nguyen said she didn’t mind talking about that time even during a season reserved for happy thoughts and positive spirits. “The more I talk about it, the more I remember,” she said.

This is a special time for Vietnamese in the United States, she said. Most of those here were born in Vietnam, so the cultural ties are strong. But as new generations of Vietnamese born in this country grow up, Nguyen said, festivals such as this one are more important, so that they don’t forget.

“We are in a transitional period now,” she said. “I am at an age where I can remember my culture, and learn another culture in a very easy manner. Twenty years from now, it may not be the same, but we hope it will. There are always new Vietnamese coming in.

“We’re hoping that our children will be doing this, with the help of their parents, family, friends and the community.”

County’s Little Saigon plans 3-day party. Part II, Page 1.