Tet Parade: Revelry and Reminders

The largest Vietnamese American community in the country welcomed the Lunar New Year on Saturday with a festival and parade in Orange County, mixing pageantry, cultural traditions and history.

“It kind of gives you a feeling of being in another country,” said Sherry Nuzzo of Tustin, who was watching the Tet parade in Westminster’s Little Saigon with her son Brian and his two children. The annual events continue to grow, organizers said, underscoring the increasing influence of the local Vietnamese community, which numbers more than 230,000 in Southern California. The Westminster parade had 62 entries this year, the most in its eight-year history, said the parade association’s vice president, Dan Charles Makaena.

Tet Nguyen Dan, known as Tet, is a time for Vietnamese families to renew their cultural bonds. .

“I want my kids to know their roots,” said Thuy Vo, a 34-year-old mother from Fountain Valley who brought four of her youngest children to watch the parade.

About 10,000 people attended the Bolsa Avenue parade, a familiar procession of high school bands, political dignitaries, siren-blaring firetrucks and colorful dragon costumes.

“Since the dragon dance brings good luck,” a female announcer quipped over the speakers, “go out and buy lottery tickets today.”

But amid the fanfare and cheers, there was also a somber reminder of the history that binds the two countries.

Interspersed among bouncing high school cheerleaders and women wearing colorful ao dais, the traditional Vietnamese dress, were military vehicles and marching veterans of the Vietnam War.

The remnants of a C-130 Army helicopter passed by, festooned with balloons and the flags of the United States and former South Vietnam.

James Zimmer of Santa Ana watched the procession Saturday with a serious expression.

“I am here to represent a lot of the soldiers who didn’t come home,” the 47-year-old Vietnam War veteran said. “The parade shows the unity of the American and Vietnamese people.”

The former soldier stood ramrod straight and saluted the military officials parading down the avenue. An officer sitting atop a convertible spotted Zimmer’s frayed Army jacket and asked, “What company?”

“Third, 64th,” shouted Zimmer, who was in Vietnam from 1974 to 1978. That is 64th Army division, Third Bravo Company, he explained.

Coming to the parade and seeing a thriving Vietnamese American population made him feel as though the years he spent in Vietnam served a purpose, Zimmer saidA few miles from Zimmer, hundreds of people were savoring Vietnamese barbecue and browsing through carnival booths set up in Garden Grove Park.

The three-day event, which opened Friday, was expected to draw a record 15,000 people, according to police officials.

Proceeds will go to local charities.

In years past, because of divisions within the community, the festival was split into two competing events. Last November, a Vietnamese student group won the sole rights to run the festival from the Garden Grove City Council.

The conflict was an unfortunate chapter for the community, said Nicole Nguyen, a vice president of the Union of Vietnamese Students Assn.

But she added: “We hope we’ll move in a more united way and support one another.”