Bui Duc Lac gives prayers whereas Nguyen Ngac holds up incense as guests have fun Tet 2022, Vietnamese Lunar New 12 months, at Historical past Park San Jose Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, in San Jose, Calif. (Photograph by Jim Gensheimer)
For a lot of People, New 12 months’s occurs when the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1 and crowds of freezing folks cheer in Occasions Sq., New York.
However for the Vietnamese American neighborhood in San Jose — a gaggle that makes up greater than 10% of town’s inhabitants and represents one of many largest Vietnamese communities wherever on the planet outdoors of Vietnam — New 12 months’s got here Saturday.
Underneath heat, sunny skies at Historical past Park in San Jose’s Kelley Park, smiling crowds celebrated the Tet Competition marking the Vietnamese Lunar New 12 months, a possibility for households and mates to embrace one another, and a serious annual cultural occasion to usher within the “12 months of the Tiger.”
“That is just like our Christmas or our New 12 months’s vacation,” mentioned Sam Ho, emcee of the pageant. “It’s the principle vacation of the yr, the biggest vacation of the yr. Everyone seems to be in a contented spirit welcoming the brand new yr.”
The outside festiva, which was cancelled final yr as a consequence of COVID, showcased reside music, meals, karaoke, martial arts and calligraphy shows, together with orchid exhibitions, balloons, face portray, and bounce homes for kids. There was a contest that includes ao dai, the standard Vietnamese flowing clothes worn by ladies and men.
From the principle stage to a number of areas throughout the park, the yellow-and-red flag of South Vietnam was displayed side-by-side with the American flag.
As in previous years, a spotlight was the lion dance. A convention carried out yearly at Tet festivals, the dance symbolizes driving out evil and the arrival of prosperity, good luck and well being as a brand new yr dawns. The San Jose pageant’s marquee lion dance was carried out by Rising Phoenix, a nonprofit San Jose dance group.
Variations of the lion dance are additionally carried out in China, Japan, Korea and Tibet.
Lunar New 12 months is widely known throughout Asia, notably in China, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. In Vietnam, the vacation is known as Tet, for Tết Nguyên Đán, which suggests “Feast of the First Morning” in English.
San Francisco’s annual Chinese language New 12 months Parade, which dates again to the 1860s, and which is scheduled for Feb. 19 this yr, attracts large crowds and appreciable public consideration. Though smaller in scale, San Jose’s Tet Competition attracts Vietnamese People from throughout California and the US.
“We attempt to get folks to recollect Vietnam and to show the children about Vietnamese tradition,” mentioned Angelic Nguyen, 61, of San Jose. “Individuals come from Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento. They work laborious all yr. However as we speak they take time without work and get collectively and go to with their households.”
A lot of San Jose’s Vietnamese-American residents arrived after the autumn of Saigon in 1975 through the Vietnam Struggle. 1000's of refugees — generally often called ‘boat folks’ — escaping persecution, political oppression and re-education camps from the communist authorities, arrived in the US within the years after. They started new lives in San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, Houston and different areas.
Nguyen, who offered orchids on the pageant, mentioned her father was an officer within the South Vietnamese army. After the North Vietnamese prevailed within the battle, he was jailed for 9 years. She and her sisters labored and struggled to seek out sufficient to eat. In 1990, the sisters and their dad and mom got here to America as a part of a refugee program.
They lived in Maryland first, then moved to San Jose. She mentioned she hopes someday, youthful generations, together with Vietnamese People born in the US, will reshape Vietnam, eradicating communism.
“It’s crucial for them to know why we're right here,” she mentioned. “We misplaced our nation. They've to recollect the struggling and the way we got here right here to America.”
The theme for this yr’s San Jose Tet Competition is tradition and human rights in Vietnam. The pageant highlights three areas of Vietnam, the southern, northern and central, by means of music, dance, meals and conventional shows of every space.
Not all guests Saturday had been of Vietnamese descent. There have been quite a few political leaders, together with Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, whose district contains elements of San Jose, together with Santa Clara County supervisors Cindy Chavez and Otto Lee, and native residents from close by neighborhoods.
Kevin Yin, who wandered by means of together with his spouse and daughter, ingesting sugar cane juice they'd simply bought, mentioned he's Chinese language-American, however he felt at house on the pageant.
“We share rather a lot in frequent,” he mentioned of Chinese language and Vietnamese tradition. “I really feel acquainted right here.”
The Tet Competition continues Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Viet Museum at Historical past San Jose, 1650 Senter Highway. Admission is free.
