By Tony Cheong —
It was all about the Tet Festival and Parade in Garden Grove and Westminster over the weekend.
Wow!
As usual, there was no shortage of delicious foods, stunning costumes and family fun.
I love seeing Vietnamese-Americans continue their cultural traditions, while at the same time embracing America. We have in our area about the biggest concentration of Vietnamese Americans — thousands who fled from war-torn Saigon in the 1970s — in our area.
By Tony Cheong —
It was all about the Tet Festival and Parade in Garden Grove and Westminster over the weekend.
Wow!
As usual, there was no shortage of delicious foods, stunning costumes and family fun.
I love seeing Vietnamese-Americans continue their cultural traditions, while at the same time embracing America. We have in our area about the biggest concentration of Vietnamese Americans — thousands who fled from war-torn Saigon in the 1970s — in our area.
On the food: there was sticky rice (xoi), sausage (cha), candied fruits (mut) and much more. The candied fruits are my favorite.Unlike Western jam, which is usually in liquid form and served with bread, "Vietnamese jam" is mainly in dry form, usually dried fruits and some kind of seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, watermelon seeds). This once-in-year mix of snack is very large in variety, with so many tastes: ginger, carrot, coconut, pineapple, pumpkin, lotus seed, star fruit, sweet potato.
On the costumes: Most of these can be seen at the parade on Bolsa Avenue in Westminster (the festival is held in Garden Grove). A picture really is worth a thousand words, so I'm not going to spend a thousand words describing the costumes. Just check out Loreen Berlin's photos in this paper. Stunning!
On the family fun: There were games, arts and crafts and shopping. And… too many cute children to count.
What else should you know about Tet? The Vietnamese use many kinds of flowers and plants to decorate their houses during Tet, which celebrates the Lunar New Year. It's common to see chrysanths, marigolds, mao ga flowers, paperwhite flowers and lavender. But there are three that are an absolute must in Vietnamese culture: peach flower, ochna integerrima and marumi kumquat.
The Vietnamese are big on toasts and well-wishing. At Tet, you may wish someone a happy new year and/or many other things. Here are a handful that I hear every year at Tet:
I wish you a wealthy new year.
I wish that you will get promoted in the new year.
I wish that the new year will bring health to all your family.
New year, new triumphs.
All wishes come true.
New lover will come in the new year. Note: this one's for single people.
And now, drum roll please, my favorite wish of them all. Full disclosure: I'm a frugal person, so I repeat the second part of this wish to my husband, who never saw a restaurant special he didn't want to try.
Money influx is as strong as Da's river; expenditure is as little as dripping coffee.
Spend as little as dripping coffee. Isn't that great? Sounds like something financial whiz Suze Orman would say.
Have a comment, question or suggestion? You can reach Tony at tonyontown@yahoo.com.
