Bishop Dennis Walsh blesses the Vietnamese Catholic community during Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport on Feb. 2.
By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — The Vietnamese Catholic community celebrated Lunar New Year with Mass on Feb. 2 at Sacred Heart Cathedral, with Father Simon Thoi Hoang, SVD, rector of Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa, presiding. His concelebrants were Father Khoa Le, parochial vicar of Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace Parish in Clinton; Father Thom Hennen, the cathedral’s pastor; and Father Tuan Hoang of Divine Word College. Bishop Dennis Walsh attended and Deacons Dan Huber and John Jacobsen assisted.
Lunar New Year, also known as “Tet Nguyen Dan” (“Tet” for short) in Vietnamese, “is the most important and popular festival for the Vietnamese people during the year,” said Trein Martin Ngo of the Vietnamese Catholic community.
“Not only is Tet a celebration of the arrival of spring and an occasion to pay respects to one’s ancestors, it is also a great opportunity for family to come together. Family members will return to their homeland for a reunion and to savor the flavors of the holiday,” Ngo said. Most Eastern Asian countries observe some sort of Lunar New Year celebration, but Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and Tibet have official celebrations.
“For the Vietnamese, honoring the coming of the New Year looks ahead toward good fortunes while centering on happiness and positive values. Numerous celebrations aim to strengthen Vietnamese culture, beliefs and family ties. Tet is not only a long and proud tradition of Vietnamese but also a symbolic festival of birth and rebirth that only strengthen in the coming years,” Ngo said.
This is the year of the snake, based on the lunar calendar, he added. “The snake is associated with wisdom, charm, elegance and transformation. People born in the year of the snake are believed to be intuitive, strategic and intelligent.”
Many attending Mass — children and adults — wore traditional, colorful Vietnamese attire.
“As we begin this New Year, we experience and have a willingness to be with Jesus and the Holy Family,” Father Simon Hoang said during his homily. “The Feast of the Presentation helps us reflect on the journey we are about to begin this New Year.”
His message focused on hope, beginning with Mary and Joseph journeying to Jerusalem to present Jesus to the Lord. “We begin our journey of hope in this Holy Year, too. We sense we belong to God. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has hope that we are a people of hope and bring hope to people around us. May we have the courage to follow the Holy Father and bring hope and joy around us.”
At the end of Mass, Bishop Walsh blessed the congregation. Attendees ages 70 and older approached the front of the cathedral for a separate blessing from the bishop. Then, youths ages 18 and younger received red envelopes of “lucky money.” This is a tradition in which the eldest family members give red envelopes to the children and young adults while advising them about life, school and work. Red envelopes symbolize hope for prosperity for the youngest family members. In turn, the youths express good luck, success and good health in the New Year to their elders.
The Vietnamese community presented Bishop Walsh and Father Hennen each with a long, colorful tunic (Ao Dai in Vietnamese) for the New Year. “We wanted to give them something traditional and this represents the Vietnamese people,” Ngo said. Bishop Walsh and Father Hennen wore their tunics to the reception after Mass in the cathedral’s Great Hall, which featured Vietnamese food, dragon dance, singing and dancing. Participants went home, carrying small scrolls with a Scripture verse for the New Year.
