Garden Grove, CA-- The Tet Festival in Garden Grove is an annual February Festival held  in conjunction with Chinese New Year. Each year around the date of the Chinese New Year, the Orange County Asian community celebrates Tet, or Lunar New Year. It is the most observed holiday in the Vietnamese community.  An annual  Tet Festival in Garden Grove is hosted by the Vietnamese Student Union Association as a means to preserve its culture. Garden Grove and Westminster, California, are home several Asian cultures (including a Korean community), so the event attracts or brings together culturally diverse groups to celebrate.

Traditions and pageantry that have existed for centuries showcase vibrant, colorful costumes with entertainment, including beautiful women in a Miss Vietnam of Southern California contest. In the Asian community, special costumes and customs have not been completely lost or replaced as youngsters growing up in the U.S. have only their parents or grandparents' stories and traditions to embrace. The festival is attended by all age groups, and is especially popular in offering games, contests and traditional ceremonies familiar to the older generations.

For tourists, the experience can seem foreign, but incredibly fun. From appeasing the gods with food and money in the Dragon dance, to paying homage to historic heroes, or sampling unique foods, Tet festival is filled with sights, smells and sounds of voices speaking another language that transport you to another world.  It's a markedly different place than what's painted in The OC, MTV's Laguna Beach and Sunset Beach, all TV stereotypes. While you will find Gidget at the beach, just a few miles down the street you'll see Little Saigon. And even at the beach, service organizations of young professionals in the Asian community gather for bonfires and marshmallow roasts.

So if you seek to expand your horizons, take a day to enjoy the Tet Festival celebration in Garden Grove. The city located next to Disneyland and Anaheim offers many hotel rooms at affordable prices for those eager to get out and explore. While the foods served at the Tet Festival tend toward mainstream and look more like foods served in Chinese restaurants, you can visit Asian Garden Mall any day of the year to enjoy more authentic pho  dishes.

The Tet Festival updates are available on tetfestival.org. We also post the Garden Grove Tet Festival on our calendar of event when we become aware of specific dates, location, etc.

Where to stay: Garden Grove is practically Disneyland's home and as such, offers many nice hotels at affordable options such as the Hilton Garden Inn. With over 10 hotels to select, many offering Disneyland packages and deals, you may want to check them all out before you decided which is best for your visit.

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