You’re invited to experience Vietnamese Lunar New Year traditions during a free, all-ages Tết celebration on Saturday, January 24 at 11:30am at Shadle Park Library. The event offers an opportunity to learn, observe, and take part in cultural practices that welcome the Year of the Horse.
Tết is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture, rooted in a lunar calendar system thousands of years old. While Lunar New Year is observed across many Asian cultures, Tết reflects Vietnam’s distinct history, traditions, and cultural identity. This celebration gives attendees a chance to better understand those traditions through ceremony, art, food, and shared community space.
“Tết is a time of family, gratitude, renewal, and joy,” said Mary Nguyen, General Secretary and Event Coordinator for the Vietnamese American Senior Association (VASA) of Spokane. “Sharing these traditions in a public space helps create connection and understanding.”
The Year of the Horse is associated with strength, vitality, and forward movement. As this year also coincides with America approaching its 250th birthday, the celebration offers space to reflect on shared histories and the role cultural traditions play in shaping community life.
“We are proud Americans contributing to the cultural diversity of this great nation,” Nguyen said. “Events like this help build understanding and connection across cultures.”
What You’ll Experience at the Celebration
Attendees can expect a variety of meaningful and festive experiences, including:
- An ancestry holiday offering ceremony led by VASA, including a temporary shrine constructed at Shadle Park Library for the occasion
- A lively lion dance
- Opportunities to take souvenir postcard photos with the lion and dancers
- Tastings of traditional Vietnamese foods
- A special gallery display of Vietnamese Tết folk art prints
- Drawings for many gift cards donated by Vietnamese and other Asian community members
- Good-luck money (lì xì) for the first 100 children (first come, first served)
- A bilingual Tết Magazine created to mark the occasion
“Tết is sacred, joyful, and meant to be experienced together,” Nguyen said. “Let’s have a memorable Tết in Spokane. Cung Chúc Tân Xuân! Happy New Year of the Horse!”
