Little Saigon’s Lunar New Year Parade Is Canceled

A popular parade to usher in the Lunar New Year was canceled Wednesday after organizers said they did not have time to prepare for the Little Saigon event.

It is the second time the Tet parade has been canceled since its debut in 1997 along Bolsa Avenue, the commercial hub and tourist destination in Westminster.

Timothy Ngo, board chairman of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, said he began to prepare for the parade only two months ago after last year’s organizer, the Little Saigon Tet Parade Assn., opted out.

Organizers of the parade association did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

“Because of the divisions in the community, we stood back to take a look and see who would organize it,” Ngo said. “Now it’s too close for me to do anything about it. It’s really sad.”

The parade, which last year attracted about 60,000 spectators, was planned for Feb. 12 to welcome the Year of the Rooster.

The Lunar New Year, or Tet, is the largest celebration for Asians and is compared to Thanksgiving, Christmas and new year’s celebrations rolled into one holiday.

The Tet Festival, a three-day celebration sponsored by a different group at Garden Grove Park, is not affected by the parade’s cancellation and will take place Feb. 11-13.

The parade, which includes marching bands and fancy floats, takes at least five months to prepare and needs as much as $100,000 to operate, Ngo said. Last year, Little Saigon Tet Parade Assn. had to contribute money and take out loans to cover expenses.

In addition, Ngo said some participants were not interested in marching down Bolsa Avenue because the seven-lane road was revamped this year to include a landscaped center median that would divide the parade’s path.

“We have several issues. How are we going to raise the funds? How can we get the participants to be excited about it?” said Lac Tan Nguyen, board vice president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California.

“They were performing on a wide street and now it’s a tiny corridor. They feel it’s not worth their time to show up.”

The Tet parade was canceled in 2000 after another group failed to post a $15,000 bond required by Westminster and infighting escalated among several community groups.

Bickering has long been a history of Tet celebrations because of clashing personalities, politics and power struggles.