Celebrate the Lunar New Year

David Huynh, staff writer

On Jan. 26, Vien-Giac temple held a Lunar New Year festival to celebrate the Year of the Rat.  The festival included many events to ensure everyone could have fun. People from all backgrounds attended this festival. The event was completely free, including activities such as watching performers and singers to the lion dancers. 

One of the first events was a spiritual event of prayer. This event was not mandatory.  During this event, people lit incense and prayed for good luck, prosperity, and wealth for the new year, or to give passing for those who have lost family members, before placing incense into the solid gold or stone pot. 

The food was free and completely vegetarian with some vegan friendly options. During the event, traditional Asian food was served. There was a self-serving station so attendees could get food in a buffet-style. The two dishes I tried were a vegetarian curry and vegetarian bom bo hue, which is a Vietnamese noodle dish. 

This was an Indian style curry, and the curry was  sweeter than spicy. What it lacked in spice, it made up for with sweetness and richness, but that is not to say it did not have some heat to it. The spices were perfectly mild, and the perfect blend of seasonings which ensured that it was not too spicy to eat while also maintaining traditional curry spice. Bread was available to dip into the curry as a sort of edible utensil. The curry also had potatoes, vegan pork  and tofu, which gave it an earthy taste. 

For people who wanted something spicy, the bom bo hue was a good choice for spicy lovers. Bom bo hue is a traditional Vietnamese noodle dish similar to pho, but the soup base is more spice concentrated to give it a rich flavor while packing intense heat as well. Typically, it would be served with beef, which is where the bo comes from, but since it was a vegetarian version of the dish, they used a meat substitute that was soy based, but it still had the rich, savory flavor the beef would have added. When ordering it, there was the option to add chilies to it to turn up the spice. The flavor ranged from a spicy umami flavor to a cooled earthy taste.

The event ended with live music performances by temple regulars, where they sang traditional and festive Lunar New Year music based off of Vietnamese traditions while lion dancers came out to perform. Additionally, the head Buddhist monk came out and handed out red envelopes containing a dollar bill with a red stamp on it and a tangerine. This symbolizes a good and prosperous new year.