Celebrating a New Year, Old Ways : Tet Festival Helps Vietnamese Link Past and Present

GARDEN GROVE — The aromatic scent of the incense burning at a ceremonial altar brought back memories for Candy Nguyen.

“I feel like I still have my country in me, and being with our people gives me the chance to talk and have a good time for a happy New Year,” said Nguyen, 33, who fled Vietnam in 1975 and now lives in Costa Mesa. “But my husband and I also come so our children can remember our country.”

Nguyen, her husband and their three children joined more than 15,000 revelers who came to celebrate the Vietnamese New Year at the Tet Festival held Saturday at Garden Grove Park.

During the day, crisp dollar bills stuffed in crimson envelopes were passed out to children for good luck during the event called Li Xi. Firecrackers were strung like sausages on wires in preparation for the Lion Dance. The smell of banh tec, a meat-filled rice cake wrapped in banana leaves, filled the air.

“We want the younger generation to know why we’re here, what the people before them have done and what is yet to be done,” said Ban Bui, president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, which organized the event. “About 70 percent of the festival is culture-related.”

The festival, which continues today, showcases 20 years of community accomplishments since 1975, the year thousands of Vietnamese left their homeland with the fall of Saigon.

Vietnamese associations set up booths to document the history of their members. In the middle of the festival grounds stood an ancestry altar complete with incense and traditional white gladiolus.

“I was born in America but I have gone back to Vietnam at least four times, so when businesses close down on New Year’s and when we have festivals like this it makes you feel like you are in Vietnam,” said Linh Nguyen, 19, a student at Cal State Fullerton. “I think it is great to see that we are in America, but we can still celebrate our Vietnamese culture.”

Tet, short for Tet Nguyen Dan (“feast of the first day”), marks the arrival of spring and celebrates ancestral worship and prosperity for the New Year. Although Tet fell on Jan. 31, there have been festivals in several Orange County cities on the weekends before and after the holiday.

The New Year is based on the lunar calendar. Jan. 31 marked the first day of the lunar year 4693, year of the pig.

“I think it’s awesome the way the people show up (at the festival). It makes us think about our culture, our country,” said Manh Koan, 21, a freshman at Cypress College. “It feels like the original Vietnam.”

Koan performed in the lion dance, during which about 15 young men took turns dancing in two lion outfits. At times Koan wore the mask of the lion, at others he hoisted a teammate on his shoulders to elevate the lion. The youths are part of a martial arts group called Hong Bang.

Organizers watched as the theme of the festival “Bridge to the Future” was played out before their eyes.

As the colorful lions bobbed up and down the stage, parents explained to their children that the lion wasn’t real. Grandparents ran up to the stage with their grandchildren to give the lion tips. And all sat in awe as smoke puffed out of the lion’s mouth at the end of the performance.

The festival resumes at 10 a.m. today and continues until 11 p.m. at Garden Grove Park, at Westminster Avenue and Atlantis Way.

Times staff writer Thao Hua contributed to this report.