EVENTS : It’s a New Moon--and Time to Ring in the Year of the Pig

While for some people the holidays are over, for others they are just reaching their peak.

A new moon begins Jan. 31, which in many Asian cultures also marks the new year. The Vietnamese call the holiday Tet and traditionally celebrate it for three days.

“It’s like Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s all in one holiday,” said Derrick Nguyen, event coordinator of the Little Saigon Tet Festival in Westminster.

During Tet, “we offer thanks to our ancestors and pay tribute to them,” Nguyen said. “It is also a time to visit friends and relatives and to offer them good luck and wish them happiness during the new year.”

The Little Saigon festival is one of several celebrations of Tet, the most sacred of Vietnamese holidays, that will be held in Orange County this year as community groups usher in the Year of the Pig.

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Vietnamese Tet Festival, Golden West College: Variety will be the name of the game at this 13th annual event, which runs Saturday and Sunday, hosted by the college and the Southern California Union of Vietnamese Student Assns.

Kahn Wang, president of the union and a graduate student at Cal State Fullerton, said offerings will include a volleyball tournament, a pig-calling contest and astrology readings as well as carnival rides, games and booths. There will also be a “Creative Photography” contest for professionals and amateurs, live Vietnamese folk music, drama, a health fair, a firecracker show and an ancestral-remembrance ceremony. For children, there will be drawing and costume contests, real piglets to play with and onstage and offstage performances by the Rangers.

Hours are 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Golden West College is at 15744 Golden West St., between McFadden and Edinger avenues, in Huntington Beach; the festival will be held in the Gothard Street parking lot. Admission is $3; children under four feet tall get in free. Information: (714) 895-8367.

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Tet Festival, Santa Ana: The Vietnamese Community of Orange County is holding a celebration Saturday at the Asian Center. There will be a fair and food.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Asian Center is at 1618 W. 1st St., between Bristol and Fairview streets. Admission is free. Information: (714) 558-6009.

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First Moon Fest at Kidseum, Santa Ana: The children’s museum, part of Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, is taking a multicultural approach to the holiday.

Said Janet Baker, chief of education and curator of Asian art: “We didn’t want to focus on only one ethnic group, so we’re taking aspects of the lunar year shared by those cultures that celebrate it” and incorporating them into a celebration that began Jan. 14 and runs through Sunday.

On Saturday, Kidseum will offer Asian tales, an art lab in which youngsters can create Korean bird kites and a film that explores Chinese new year celebrations. The film and more stories are also on Sunday’s agenda, which includes an art lab on how to create dough people. (Lab fee is $1.)

Kidseum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Closed Monday. Kidseum is at 2002 N. Main St., three blocks north of 17th Street. Admission is $1.50 for children age 5 to 12, under 5 free. All children must be accompanied by an adult. For specific event times, call the museum, (714) 567-3600.

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Lunar New Year Festival, Rancho Santiago College: John Vu, adviser for the Vietnamese Student Assn., which is hosting its Wednesday celebration at the Santa Ana campus, said he hopes the event helps people understand and appreciate Vietnamese tradition.

Unlike in Western culture, “we are not that concerned about our individual birthdays,” Vu said. “The new year is a birthday for everybody. We celebrate ourselves and our older generation.” But, Vu noted, this year’s festival will have an additional significance in that 1995 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

“Twenty years ago, we lost our country,” Vu said. “Now we have it back, and we hope we will have a peaceful country with a government that cares about and respects human life.”

The festival will kick off with a dragon dance and will include musical performances, a children’s dance, drama and a martial-arts demonstration.

Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the campus amphitheater. Rancho Santiago College, Santa Ana campus, is at 1530 W. 17th St., at Bristol Street. Admission is free. Information: (714) 564-6149.

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Little Saigon Tet Festival, Westminster: This three-day event, Feb. 3-5, has traditionally been Orange County’s largest, with last year’s festival attracting about 120,000 people, event coordinator Nguyen said. It also raised about $45,000, which was distributed to community charities, nonprofit organizations and scholarship funds, he said.

Nguyen said the 1995 festival--which moves from its former location in a 99 Ranch Market parking lot to the soccer field at McGarvin Intermediate School--is an opportunity for Vietnamese not only to look inside themselves but also to reach out to other cultures.

“Every ethnic people is proud,” he said, “but we would like to learn about other ethnic groups and cultures too. We hope to bridge different aspects of different cultures.” Hence the festival theme “Bridging Cultures.” In addition to carnival rides, games, booths and food, the event will include lion dances, firecracker displays, a fashion show and a Miss Asian Pacific beauty pageant, a Chinese chess contest and a 5K run.

The race, which begins at 8 a.m., will make a 3.1-mile loop through Little Saigon. Walkers and strollers are welcome, and all participants will receive a T-shirt and free admission to the festival. Registration is $20. For information or to receive an entry form, call (714) 842-2337.

UC Irvine and UCI Medical Center will be involved in the Little Saigon festival, too, offering information on higher education, employment opportunities and health care, including free screenings, consultations and children’s vaccinations.

Festival hours are 4 to 10 p.m. Feb. 3, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Feb. 4, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 5. McGarvin Intermediate School is at 9802 Bishop Place, between Brookhurst and Bushard streets. Free shuttle service is available every 15 minutes to and from La Quinta High School, Asian Village Mall and Asian Garden Mall. Festival admission is $3; children under 6 are admitted free. Information: (714) 898-9556.

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Vietnamese Tet Festival, Garden Grove: Staging a celebration that reminds young Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans of their roots is important to Henry Vu, planning coordinator.

In keeping with the festival theme of “A Bridge to the Future,” Vu said, the Westminster-based Vietnamese Community of Southern California, which is hosting the event, wants to “help the new generation learn about Vietnamese culture. A lot of them don’t know much about it. We would like to take this opportunity to refresh their memory.”

He added: “People in Vietnam usually spend several days preparing for the event. They buy new clothes for themselves and their children. They repaint the house. They make special food.”

Food, costumes and tireless preparation are also a part of this event, which runs Feb. 3-5 at Garden Grove Park.

The festival will include carnival rides, games and booths, music, dance and a Miss Vietnamese beauty pageant.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Feb. 3 and 4, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 5. Garden Grove Park is at 9301 Westminster Ave., between Brookhurst and Magnolia streets. Admission is $3; children under 6 get in free. Information: (714) 531-2590.