Music, food, fun mark Tet Festival celebrating lunar new year in New Orleans

Signs written in Vietnamese, a few bearing English translations, pointed guests to New Orleans’ annual Tet Festival on Saturday, the lunar new year celebration held at Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in Michoud.

“People do it to bring us all together,” said Chris Lai, a member of the church. They’re “saying that ‘we’re still here.’”

In New Orleans, Lai said, the festival is a chance for people to see friends they haven’t encountered in years. It has grown in the decades since the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans resettled 2,100 Vietnamese refugees in southeast Louisiana in the late 1970s, after Saigon fell to communist forces fighting the U.S. military.

“You’re looking at the second generation,” Lai said. “They all come home.” 

In 2024, the Year of the Dragon began on Feb. 10, but locals celebrate for weeks before and after the lunar new year itself.

Vietnamese signature dishes anchored the festival, as residents volunteered their time and resources to make banh mi, pho and other foods. More offered activities, including darts and face painting, to raise money for the church. Musicians played on a stage in the middle of the parking lot.

Lai called the festival a “way of giving back.” 

“They spend the money, they sponsor the booth, and all the sales go straight to the church,” he said. 

Mai Nguyen, a Sisters of the Holy Rosary nun, was attending a wedding inside Mary Queen of Vietnam’s chapel. She walked around the festival to enjoy its sights and sounds just after the wedding let out. 

“It’s a coming together … not only to support the family values but also the culture, the Vietnamese culture,” she said. 

Nguyen said the lunar celebration reminds her to be resilient, and of the new year’s blessings.

“This year is ‘be strong and fly high like the dragon,’” she said. “Come and enjoy [the festival] … friendship, the food.” 

Ken Xu and Bree Ritz, both originally from Portland, Oregon attended the festival mostly to eat but also to immerse themselves in a part of southeast Asian culture that they said they don’t often see celebrated in the New Orleans area.

“It’s hard to find stuff like this,” Ritz said. “Exposure is important, especially to different cultures.” 

Xu, who has Chinese heritage, said the festival was welcoming, as it felt familiar to his own cultural celebration of the lunar new year. 

“It’s always nice to see,” Xu said. “I like that it’s a place where anybody can come and share in culture.” 

New Orleans East native Erin Malone said she came to the festival as a tribute to her upbringing. She went to Lake Castle School in the neighborhood and was raised around Vietnamese Americans. 

Saturday was a chance to celebrate it for her, especially by trying pho for the first time. 

“I’m usually more of a curry girl, so I’m excited” she said.