Organizers want to revive TET parade
Little Saigon tradition vanished three years ago after parade organizers ran out of money.
By DEEPA BHARATH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
WESTMINSTER – Organizers are trying to bring the Tet Parade back to Little Saigon in time for the Vietnamese New Year celebrations in February.
The parade, which added color and vivaciousness to the annual celebration, ran out of steam and money in 2004, about 22 years after the tradition began in the local Vietnamese American community.
Now, Hung Phuong Nguyen, a Vietnam War veteran, is trying to bring back that tradition. He is meeting with city officials to firm up the parade route and other details for the parade, which he envisions with 30 floats, all funded by local businesses and some corporate donors.
“It’s something that not only Vietnamese people enjoy, but everybody enjoys,” Nguyen said.
Tet is the annual celebration that marks the beginning of the lunar calendar. Next year will be the Year of the Rat.
Nguyen organized the parade in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, he moved to Las Vegas for a few years. Janet Nguyen took over the parade in 2004, but it ran at a loss and she ended up owing $7,000 to the city of Westminster.
Mayor Margie Rice said Janet Nguyen – a former Garden Grove councilwoman who is now a county supervisor -- paid back that money some time last year.
Rice said the city is in no position to fund such a parade, but would support it and encourage residents to participate.
“We don’t even have money to put up a Founder’s Day Parade in this city, let alone a Tet Parade,” she said.
Janet Nguyen said she tried to make the parade “as apolitical as possible” in 2004.
“I wanted it to be a cultural experience for everyone in Orange County rather than an anti-Communist rally,” she said. “The Tet Parade was always political because a lot of people in the community wanted to dictate who should or shouldn’t be in the parade.”
Hung Nguyen said he and other organizers this year want to have the parade in Westminster on Bolsa Avenue between Magnolia and Bushard streets – in the heart of Little Saigon.
The Union of Vietnamese Student Associations usually holds their weekend-long Tet celebrations in Garden Grove Park.
Bao Mai, one of the Tet festival organizers, said the parade was widely enjoyed by the community and worked hand in hand with the festival. Invitees from the festival have participated in the parade in past years and organizers usually made room on the festival grounds to showcase some of the parade floats, Mai said.
“It adds more color to the celebrations,” he said.
The parade is expected to cost more than $25,000, including money for police, street closures and permit fees, which Nguyen hopes the city will waive.
Nguyen said he is organizing several fundraisers in the coming weeks.
“We’ll make it an event the city will be proud of,” he said. “It’s part of a wonderful tradition.”
Contact the writer: 714-445-6685 or dbharath@ocregister.com
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