In the preparations for the Tet celebration, let´s say the Vietnamese New Year, the Festival of Flowers is one of the events in Little Saigon, in the city of Westminster, Southern California. And I was lucky to be present at this urban event, to visit the stands, specially for the beautiful orchids that were on display.
I was somehow confused because I knew about the Chinese New Year which is celebrated in Chinatown Los Angeles, and had to read in Wikipedia the meaning of the celebrations, that I reproduce here:
¨Tết (Northern Vietnamese, Southern Vietnamese), or Vietnamese New Year, is the most important celebration of Vietnamese culture. The word is a shortened form of Tết Nguyên Đán (Nôm: 節元旦) , which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day". It celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar, a lunisolar calendar, which usually has the date falling between the months of January or February. Tết is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing resulting in the alternate calculation of the new moon. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tết by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. There are a lot of customs practiced during Tết, such as visiting a person's house on the first day of the new year (xông nhà), ancestral worshipping, wishing New Year's greetings, giving lucky money to children and elderly people, and opening a shop. Tết is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. During Tết, Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. They consider Tết to be the first day of spring and the festival is often called Hội xuân (spring festival).¨
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Enjoy the pictures, I took them all with my cell phone last Saturday. Please do not reproduce them without my permission.
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