Lunar New Year…As a Viet Man

Throughout my life, there were two things that I didn’t think would happen in the month of February. The first being that I would go from a Chinese to a Vietnamese man, the second being that I would no longer have a reason to post about “Singles Awareness Day” on Valentine’s day….yet here we are.

My beautiful girlfriend was generous enough to get Áo dàis for the both us. Not only that, but she got ones that matched and made both of us look even more attractive than we already are. I like looking back on this picture because of how cute we looked as a couple. Obviously 90% of the cuteness in this picture comes from her instead of me.

I spent the day in Garden Grove at a Vietnamese festival in Miles Square Park, a first for me. The Lunar New Year isn’t something my Chinese family is super active in. At most, we usually have a fancy dinner with all of our extended family. But having an actual activity to do on Lunar New Year was a nice change of pace. Tien showed me a variety of Vietnamese street food, from corn, to Bánh mì to skewers. I loved it all, but felt bad since the park was all muddy causing the simple activity of walking to be difficult for us, especially for Tien in her heels.

Eventually, we made our way to Tien’s church in Anaheim where they had their own Lunar New Year festival. There was food, as well as a number of performances ranging from martial arts, to traditional drumming to Asian dance and choir. All Vietnamese based as you might have deduced. What surprised me was the lack of traditional Vietnamese music in some sections. For example, the drum performance had a pop oriented song choice that sounded like something you would hear at a modern day dance party. But that didn’t detract from the performance, it was just an interesting choice.

Overall, I’m glad I got to spend this Lunar New Year doing something new besides eating Chinese food. My first time celebrating as a Vietnamese man and hopefully the first of many more celebrations.