Greeting the New Year With Old Customs

Dieu T. Nguyen toured her garage, peering into stacked boxes to make sure she was well-stocked in Vietnamese staples such as rice, water, noodles, oil, spices and sauces. She couldn’t afford to start the lunar new year lacking anything.

“Everything has to be plentiful. We cannot have anything missing,” said Nguyen, 63, of Reseda. “Water and rice are especially important because they represent the blood of our life. We need these two ingredients to live. If we are lacking in anything, we will be lacking it throughout the entire year.”

Nguyen is among about 9,000 Vietnamese Americans living in the San Fernando Valley, according to the 1990 census. They will celebrate the lunar new year, which begins today, ushering in the Year of the Snake, which comes around every 12 years.

Tet, short for Tet Nguyen Dan, is a time for renewal and family bonding, and is the equivalent of the Chinese New Year and the Korean Sol.

“Even though we live in the United States, we’ll never forget about Vietnam. It’s easy to become nostalgic,” said Huynh N. Hoang, 64, Nguyen’s husband. “We call the people in Vietnam every year to wish them a happy new year. No matter where we are, we are connected by Tet, when everyone is supposed to come home.”

Tet represents a time for starting anew, and preparations and housecleaning have to be done before New Year’s Day. Some families prepare nearly a week in advance. Earlier this week, Hoang swept the floor while Nguyen followed with a wet mop. Their daughter, Thuy Hoang, rearranged silk flowers in a porcelain vase. She and Nguyen then took turns balancing various fruit on large platters, which they placed on an altar in their backyard to bring prosperity and good.

In Chatsworth, a similar altar was set up inside the Cafe Orient restaurant with signs reading Chuc Mung Nam Moi, or Happy New Year, pasted on the walls. Co-owner Dat Nguyen said the offered fruits hold special meaning.

Papaya, or du-du, and coconut, or dua, translate to “just enough” or “lacking nothing.” Mango, or xoai, means spending. Cherimoya, or mang-cau, means “wishes,” and pineapple, or thom, translates to “fragrance,” which symbolizes wealth and happiness.

“Since the first day of the new year symbolizes the rest of the year, our restaurant will be open because you don’t want to be closed on a day like that,” Dat Nguyen said. “I put these signs and altar up so the American public can be aware of another custom, instead of just Chinese New Year.”

Reseda business owner Lan Nguyen planned to open his printing shop for only a few hours Wednesday “to welcome the day in,” he said. He will spend the rest of the day with friends and family.

He recently changed $200 into crisp $1 and $2 bills, which he stuffed into little red envelopes called li-xi. He will hand out the envelopes to his children and grandchildren as a symbol of good luck.

“Even if my children are over the age of 30, they will still get a bag,” he said with a smile.

At another Reseda home, Nhan T. Nguyen and his wife, Nhuan T. Bui, busily made banh chung--a traditional delicacy of sticky rice stuffed with pork and mung bean and wrapped in banana leaves--to give to family and friends. Families usually have a pair or more of the squared cakes, one of the most prominent symbols of Tet.

Nhan Nguyen, 68, said he started the custom at his home because he didn’t like to eat the store-bought versions. Although the three-day ordeal of making the banh chung is tedious, it is worth it because Tet only comes once a year, he said.

One of his family’s specialties is homemade cha lua, a seasoned pork sausage. Bui, 68, who visited Vietnam in 1998, returned to the U.S. with a machine that whipped the ground pork into a fluffy paste.

Nhan Nguyen fluffed the meat while his wife stuffed it into a canister lined with banana leaves and covered in aluminum foil. She folded the leaves over the ends, slipped the aluminum-encased bundle out of the metal canister and tightly wound a red ribbon around the package. They would be steamed for at least three hours and presented as gifts.

“These are traditions we learned from our family and we carry it on,” Nhan Nguyen said. “We miss Vietnam very much and we want to go home, but until then we have to remember the old ways and follow them.”