With an explosion of thousands of firecrackers under the watchful eye of men standing by with fire extinguishers at the Vietnamese Tet At Miu — or New Year of the wood goat — bad luck and evil spirits were chased away Sunday at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center. The 15th New Year celebration put on by the An Lac Mission and Ventura Buddhist Study Center shows the progress the temple has made over the years, according to the Venerable Thich Thong Hai, who is the chairman of the organizing committee for this year’s festival. “This is our way of passing on our traditions,” Hai said. “When I first came here from Hawaii 15 years ago, there was no center to the Vietnamese community. They were not united. We have brought them together from all over — Santa Paula, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Santa Barbara, Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura. Our focus is to carry on our culture. What we are goes beyond race or religion.” Subscribers can read Vietnamese New Year ushers in colorful spectacle of culture at bit.ly/1CVWNTC
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 04:00:03 +0000
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