Bella Nguyen, left, and Lena Nguyen hold Vietnamese flags as they and other children dance during a celebration of the Vietnamese New Year on Sunday afternoon at the American Legion Post 95 in East Ridge.Members of the local Vietnamese community weren't sweeping their homes in preparation for the new year - a tradition meant to eliminate bad energy from the previous year - but they did celebrate Sunday with plenty of singing and eating.
Several hundred people gathered at the American Legion Post 95 off Ringgold Road to welcome the Year of the Rabbit. Based on the lunar calendar, the year officially starts Thursday. The celebration is known as Tet.
"The new year is very important for us. It's like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's of the Western society put together," said Khanh Nguyen, a Vietnam native who moved to the United States in 1994.
"It's a time when we as families come home and hope that it will be better than the previous year," he added.
A group of children sang in Vietnamese while carrying a yellow flag with three horizontal red stripes known as the South Vietnamese flag.
And about a dozen veterans of the South Vietnamese army, wearing green camouflage uniforms and red berets, sang along to patriotic songs from their homeland.
Most of the attendees were Vietnamese, and several came from as far as Atlanta and Nashville. Others, like Chattanooga resident Candice Abernathy, attended for the first time to experience something different.
"I love the food and the culture," she said as she waited with her two daughters to try some of the dozen dishes available, including banh chung, a Vietnamese rice cake wrapped in banana leaves.
She said she took her daughters because it's as important for her that they respect others as it is to try new things.
"Diversity is important in today's world; no two people are alike," she said.
Lisa Le, who left Vietnam in 1975, said local Vietnamese have gathered to celebrate the new year for about 10 years now. She said the celebration gets larger every year.
Lisa Le's daughter Teresa was 2 years old when she came to the United States. She said the celebrations are important to pass on the traditions to younger generations, especially those born in the United States.
"It's very hard to keep the traditions and maintain the culture," said the 37-year-old fashion designer. "This helps bring it back."
One of her favorite parts of the festivity is that she gets to wear the ao dai, colorful, tight-fitting silk tunics over pants women usually wear for formal affairs.