Little Saigon Ushers In the New Year

David Nguyen sees himself as a simple man. On Tuesday, though, he was anything but. He sported a new hairdo, a new black suit with a new green tie and new shiny dress shoes.

“It’s once a year,” he said. “I have to start the new year right, with everything new.”

Nguyen, a merchant in the heart of Little Saigon, joined hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and Chinese Americans in Southern California as they celebrated the Lunar New Year on Tuesday.

For Chinese, Vietnamese and some Koreans, it is the most important cultural and religious holiday of the year, a time marked with caution and festivities, tradition and superstition. There is an emphasis on securing good luck for the year ahead.

Like the Chinese New Year and the Korean Sol, Tet Nguyen Dan for the Vietnamese--known simply as Tet--is a time for renewal and family bonding. Tuesday began the Year of the Horse, which comes around every 12 years.

In Little Saigon, the smell of freshly baked bread was replaced with incense. Shops along Bolsa Avenue, usually alive with lights and blaring music, were dim. And on a street that typically attracts as many as 32,000 motorists a day, traffic was thin.

The Lunar New Year is a time of year when business owners close their shops for days at a time and consult a fortune teller before deciding which would be the luckiest day to reopen.

“There is a belief that what happens on the first day takes place throughout the whole year,” said Kim Son Vo, a professor and coordinator for the Intercultural Development Center at Cal State Fullerton.

Nguyen, 41, said he hopes his customers will continue to buy jogging suits, traditional dresses and luggage at his shop, Mindy Fashion.

And to ensure such good fortunes, he and his wife, Mindy, 38, lighted incense, bowed for prayers and burned joss paper Tuesday.

“We’re hoping for business to remain good this year,” said Nguyen, a Fountain Valley resident. “We want to start the year off right.”

Down the street at the Asian Village Mall, children handed money to dragon dancers of the Hoa Lan Dragon Dance team from Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, a group of about 20 dancers who performed in front of shops to drive out evil spirits.

Christina Luong, 28, of Santa Ana watched with pride as her 2-year-old son, Ryan Pham, took in the festive dance.

“He was born in the United States, so I wanted to remind him of our New Year’s,” said Luong, who dressed her son in traditional red and blue ao dai (a traditional outfit) and a headdress with a long hair braid.

Many in Little Saigon went from temple to temple to pray, bringing along fruit offerings and donations.

“I’m hoping for success, happiness and peace around the world,” said Lien Nguyen, 45, an assembler from Garden Grove.

Chinese Americans typically celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year spending time with their families, though some attended larger and more formal gathering in Chinatowns in Los Angeles and Monterey Park.

“It’s much more symbolic over here because it’s a tradition that people want to keep as their custom,” said Bill Chang, chairman of the South Coast Chinese Cultural Association in Irvine. “They want their kids to know.”