Thousands in Seattle ring in Lunar New Year, now an official WA holiday

Red-and-gold lanterns hung from the ceiling of Seattle’s Fisher Pavilion. Young girls in pink traditional Vietnamese dresses (áo dài) twirled coned Vietnamese hats (nón lá) above their heads.

Behind the audience, booths sold acrylic nails, embroidered flowers, small paintings, cookies, stuffed animals and a selection of áo dài. 

Thousands gathered at Seattle Center on Saturday afternoon to mark the Lunar New Year, the first celebration since it became an official state holiday in Washington. Lunar New Year celebrations — often marking the second new moon after winter solstice — include Spring Festival in China, Seollal in Korea and Tết in Vietnam.

Outside in the cold, children and their families gathered in anticipation of the centuries-old Vietnamese lion dance. 

“Tết is a time when we celebrate our ancestors, to wish them good luck, and we ring in the new year to get good luck,” said Alanna Dimiceli, a Silverdale resident with Vietnamese ancestry.

Her two sons burst with excitement, jumping up and down waiting for the dance to start. One held a paper lantern he made out of purple construction paper. The other held a red paper egg with a green snake head poking out the top.

“I want to see a lion!” he shouted, flapping his snake egg in the wind.

“They don’t know a lot about their culture,” Dimiceli said about her two sons. “That is why I bring them here.”

Tết is short for Tết Nguyên Dán, which means “feast of the first morning of the first day.” The Seattle event has been going on for 29 years.

Next door to the pavilion, hundreds more people wandered the halls of Seattle Center Armory looking at art installations and learning from a set of festival booths dedicated to health care. Children colored snake scales and pinned them to a giant snake, in honor of the Year of the Snake.

Vietnamese food trucks serving bánh mi and bubble tea lined the pavilion’s perimeter. Kraken fans poured into the space after the game as the winter sun started to set. Some fans decked out in jerseys paused to watch the colorful lion heads and bodies dance to loud drums. 

Lions bobbed their giant heads, arched their backs and shook their tails — controlled by two dancers underneath. Firecrackers exploded in the center of the dance floor.

“Anything that has to do with Vietnamese culture is so important because it is kind of like the root of our existence,” said Amanda Hoang, a Bellevue resident. 

Hoang, who has Vietnamese heritage, fears that when most Americans think about her culture, they think of the Vietnam War. 

“Rather than that,” she said, “I want to be able to look at how we celebrate the coming of life every new year … with our family and friends and uphold our traditions.”

She brought her boyfriend, Dominic Ricciaridelli.

“She came to the Italian festival for me this summer and I came to this one for her,” Ricciaridelli said. “I think I was more excited this morning than her to show up.”

Tuyết-Nhi Võ, co-associate director of Tết in Seattle, was born and raised in King County and went away to Bellingham for college.

“Coming back (to Seattle) as an adult I felt like I didn’t have a community of my own that was Vietnamese. I had my family and that’s a sense of community, but I didn’t have a peer group,” Võ said. “It’s been exciting creating new friendships and becoming part of already-made friendships and groups.” 

She loves Tết in Seattle because it provides a space for everyone to come together and participate in a wide spectrum of activities: dance, crafts, food and art.

“I really value the intergenerational aspect (of today),” Võ said. “The group that puts it together, myself included, are all 20- to 30-year-olds. Being able to continue the effort of an older generation is really exciting.”

The festivities continued Sunday.

Correction: The original story had incorrectly described the type of dance performed at Seattle Center.