Countywide : Vietnamese to Celebrate Tet Season

It’s time again for the county’s Vietnamese residents to pass out red money envelopes, decorate their homes with Chrysanthemums and dress in their best clothes--Tet season is here.

The lunar calendar’s Year of the Monkey starts Tuesday and the Vietnamese community is celebrating with various events, including two festivals taking place this weekend at Golden West College in Huntington Beach and next weekend in Westminster’s Little Saigon.

The Union of Vietnamese Students of Southern California opens its celebration at the college at 11 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday. Festivities, which include food and cultural booths, end both days at 11 p.m.

From Feb. 7 to 9, the Vietnamese Community of Southern California will hold its festival in Asian Village Mall, on the north side of Bolsa Avenue between Magnolia and Moran streets. Activities such as carnival rides begin at 10 a.m. daily, ending at midnight.

The earliest of the organized celebrations started Thursday at Fryberger School in Westminster, where kindergartners to fifth-graders learned Vietnamese dances and created artworks involving the monkey.

The campus, where about a quarter of the 400 students are Vietnamese, started observing Tet five years ago, said Ann Hosier, the school’s program coordinating teacher.

“Every child at the school looks forward to this event each year,” Hosier said. “They have a lot of fun.”

Festivities at Fryberger continue this morning with a variety show that includes the traditional dance of the mountain people and a play about the 12 animals in the lunar calendar cycle, which is followed by many Asian communities.

The lunar calendar’s first day usually falls between Jan. 21 and Feb. 19, when the first new moon rises after the sun has entered Aquarius.

Fryberger scheduled its celebration this week because more than half of its Vietnamese pupils are expected to stay home next week for Tet and its eve, school officials said.

The holiday’s traditions, which were ingrained in Vietnam’s culture through Buddhism and a century-long Chinese domination, dictate that families pay tribute to their ancestors and try to attract luck by passing out money to the young, dressing in their best clothes and decorating their homes with flowers. The color red, symbolizing good fortune, is seen in everything from food to firecrackers.

The Vietnamese community in Orange County, home to the largest population of Vietnamese exiles, continues to celebrate this holiday 17 years after Communists from the north took over South Vietnam.

The annual Tet festivals, which usually draw hundreds of thousands of participants, attract people from other states and other countries and have helped make Little Saigon famous, said Bau Van Nguyen, an organizer with the Vietnamese Community of Southern California.

“Everybody wants to bring back that feeling of our people celebrating together,” he said.

Tet Festivals The lunar calendar’s new year falls on Feb. 4 this year. Tet festivals will be sponsored by two organizations and take place this weekend and next.

Union of Vietnamese Students Assns. of Southern California When: Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Place: Golden West College, campus quad.

15744 Golden West St.

Huntington Beach.

Information: (714) 895-8367.

Parking: Golden West College parking lot (enter off Gothard Street) Admission: $2 for adults; free for children 9 and younger and for women and girls wearing Vietnamese traditional dresses. Saturday activities include:

Noon: Opening ceremony, with dance of the unicorn and passing out lucky money to children.

3:30 p.m.: Traditional dances, skits and magic show.

7 p.m.: Dating game and variety show. Sunday activities include:

12:30 p.m.: Demonstrations of martial arts.

2 p.m.: Children’s traditional costume contest.

5:15 p.m.: Variety show.

Vietnamese Community of Southern California When: Feb. 7 to 9, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Place: Asian Village Mall, behind the 99 Supermarket.

On Bolsa Avenue between Magnolia and Moran streets.

Westminster.

Information: (714) 891-7757. Parking: Shuttle bus will run to and from Bolsa Grande and La Quinta High Schools and Murdy and Leo Carrillo Elementary Schools. Additional parking at Asian Garden Mall. Admission: $3 for adults, $2 for children under 10; free for infants. Activities include: Dance of the unicorn, variety show, traditional dances, musical and comedy skits, fashion show, beauty pageant, musical competitiond, academic competition, lottery drawing.