For Tet, Little Saigon's Partying Hearty

By MAI TRAN

Jan. 21, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Lan Khanh Duong flew in from Australia to help clean her aunt’s kitchen in Irvine.

“Tet is all about spending time with family no matter what we’re doing together,” said Duong, 22, who made a rare visit from Sydney to celebrate the Vietnamese lunar New Year, which falls on Wednesday. “We bond now so the family remains close throughout the year.”

Duong is among the swell of Vietnamese American tourists converging on Orange County this week to celebrate Tet, regarded as the most important cultural and religious holiday for the Vietnamese, Chinese and some Koreans. It’s probably best compared to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year all rolled into one.

“We take it very seriously,” said Dave Nguyen, director of tourism at the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce in Westminster. “It’s a time to be with families . . . no matter which part of the world you live in.”

Orange County’s Little Saigon remains the hottest spot in America where Vietnamese try to congregate for Tet. The business and cultural hub is home to more than 3,000 shops and is the epicenter of the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam.

Business owners and Tet organizers are geared up for what’s expected to be the most hectic and festive lunar New Year celebration yet in Orange County. The Year of the Snake is being ushered in with colorful foods, a cultural parade and two festivals--one this weekend at the Westminster Civic Center, and a three-day festival that begins Friday at Garden Grove Park. And although there are festivals elsewhere in the nation, Westminster’s is the biggest.

“When you say, ‘Little Saigon,’ everyone over here knows what it is,” said Oanh Pham, 47, president of the Vietnamese Community of Minnesota, a state where an estimated 22,000 Vietnamese Americans reside. “It is the Vietnamese capital in the United States known to have large Tet celebrations.”

Last year, one of Orange County’s two main Tet festivals attracted at least 60,000 people. By comparison, a crowd of about 50,000 attended the Tet festival in San Jose, home to the second-largest Vietnamese community in the nation. Houston attracted an estimated 25,000 to its festival and about 2,000 people attended Minnesota festivities.

Duong, who has only seen her aunt twice in two decades, shopped for fruit, sesame candies, fake paper clothes and gold last week. On Wednesday, she gathered with friends and other relatives for a feast and ceremony to honor Ong Tao--the kitchen god--with prayers, lighted incense and offerings of food.

Legend has it that one week before Tet, the chief guardian spirit of the hearth returns to heaven to report on the family’s activities over the past year, and the family either gets awarded or punished for its deeds.

Families traditionally clean the kitchen and leave offerings of special foods at an altar. They also burn sacrificial gold papers and offer a carp as transportation for the spirit’s journey to heaven.

Tet, also known as Tet Nguyen Dan, is the arrival of spring and a time for forgiveness, reunion, remembrance and renewal. Elders give children li xi, or “lucky money” in red envelopes, in exchange for wishes of luck, prosperity and good health.

People pay homage to their ancestors and honor them at altars with offerings of rice cakes, fruit and candies. Families gather for lavish meals of whole roasted pigs and rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves.

It also is a season that starts with superstitions. No sweeping on Tet or you’ll sweep money out of the home. The first person to walk into your home will determine your family’s success or misfortunes throughout the year.

Meticulous planning is required to start the year out right, since it is believed the first days determine the fate of the whole year.

“It’s a special family gathering and it’s a rare occasion, because in America, families are too busy working to survive,” said Vivian Tran, 18, of Costa Mesa. “We don’t have any other Vietnamese holidays in America.”

Tran has made up her to-do list, as she does each year, and it includes stopping at the bank for crisp dollar bills to stuff inside red envelopes for her five cousins. She’ll also scour stores for tea and cookies to wrap in red cellophane for her parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Some travel agents reported up to an 80% boost in airline ticket sales into Orange County’s John Wayne Airport or Los Angeles International Airport in the weeks preceding Tet.

Le Luu, manager of Westminster Ticket Center, said sales at her Bolsa Avenue agency have soared 70% this month. Many of her customers live on the East Coast but try to come home for Tet.

“Nowhere else do people celebrate Tet like we do,” asserted Kay Tran, a sales manager at Four Seasons Travel and Tours in Westminster. “In some states, there’s no Vietnamese community, so they come back to celebrate and visit friends and family.”

Although many businesses in Little Saigon close for at least two days to celebrate the holiday, supermarkets and restaurant owners ordered twice as much food to accommodate what are expected to be overwhelming crowds.

Shelves are stocked with containers of colorful coconut-strip candies and dried fruits. At many restaurants, customers find themselves waiting more than an hour for a table.

“We don’t have time to cook enough food,” said Loc Buu, owner of Seafood World Restaurant.

For information on today’s Tet Festival at the Westminster Civic Center complex, organized by the Union of Vietnamese Student Assns. of Southern California, call (714) 893-3139.

The Tet Festival, which begins Friday, is sponsored by the Vietnamese Community of Southern California. Information: (714) 901-3047.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Year of the Snake

Thousands will celebrate the Vietnamese New Year in Tet events this weekend at the Westminster Civic Center complex. Admission for the festival is $4 for adults and $2 for children. The schedule:

Today

10:00 Festivities begin

11:00 Opening Ceremony

Noon Dragon Dance

1:00 Pham Van Luan Martial Arts

1:45 Tre Em Mac Quoc Phuc Dep Contest

3:45 Duong Son Dai Huynh Martial Arts School

4:15 Winners and Prizes for costume contest

4:45 Vovinam Martial Arts School

6:00 - 10:00 College Night

6:10 CSUF Wu Shu Team

6:25 UCR Performances