On a recent rainy Sunday, 2,500 people came to the Croatian Cultural Centre to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Pig. Folk dances and musical performances kept spirits high, and booths selling both auspicious and everyday snacks attracted jeans-sporting teenagers and elders clad in traditional dress equally. But no greetings of gung hay fat choy rang out at this party. That’s because it was for the Vietnamese community, which was celebrating the new year, known as Tet.

With so much focus on Chinese New Year, it’s easy to forget that other Asian communities in Vancouver also follow the lunar calendar. Each marks the new year in its own way. And as with any celebration, food plays a big role.

Reached by phone before the February 4 Tet Festival, Binh Ngoc Tran explained to the Straight that Vietnamese people will celebrate the lunar new year on the night of February 17 and on February 18. However, the chair of the Vietnamese Cultural Activities Centre in B.C. said he will mark those days with only a small family gathering. “This [festival] is the celebration for the whole community,” Tran said, referring to the event, which is sponsored by an organization called the Vietnamese Canadian Community in Greater Vancouver. “We celebrate just a little in the house. But we come together in the Tet Festival.”

When the Straight arrived, vendors were doing brisk business selling Vietnamese sandwiches, nem chua (pickled sour pork sausage with hot peppers and garlic wrapped in banana leaves), and finger food like fresh and fried spring rolls and prawn paste wrapped around sugar-cane stalks. There was even a sugar cane–pressing machine on site, squeezing out golden drinks from the long green stalks.

One food item stood out: banh chung. Resembling Chinese sticky-rice packets, the neat, banana leaf–wrapped squares contain glutinous rice with pork and mung beans in the middle. They are hefty, at about five centimetres thick and 12 centimetres square, each tied with twine and boiled for about seven hours. Of all the edibles, said Tran, this one is special for Tet.

“It’s a symbol for the earth,” Tran explained. “The traditional belief is that the earth is square.” He said the other symbolic Tet food is a convex rice round called banh day, which is made of rice flour and is said to represent the sky. At the festival, small banh day were served topped with Vietnamese ham.

Festivalgoer Loanna Nguyen explained the significance of the two cakes. According to legend, thousands of years ago King Hung VI wanted to pass on his kingdom to one of his sons. To determine who would inherit the throne, he asked each to go out into the world and bring back what was most valuable. While most of the sons returned with elaborate riches, one son brought him banh chung, which represented simple nourishment. “Our country was an agricultural country,” Nguyen said. “We need the sun and the earth to live.”

According to Nguyen, the Vietnamese put banh chung out as offerings for the new year to pray for health, wealth, and happiness.

Members of Vancouver’s Korean community also eat symbolic foods during lunar new year celebrations. But while many Chinese mark the occasion with a restaurant meal, the big moment for Korean families will come this Sunday morning (February 18).

“I wouldn’t really think of a dinner banquet at all in our culture. Breakfast is most important,” said Andrea Shin, a board member of the Corean Canadian Coactive Society. In a phone interview, Shin explained that when Koreans get up on New Year’s Day, they put on their best new clothing, like a traditional gown called a hanbok, and lay out a table with culinary offerings. These include rice, soup, savoury seafood pancakes, and sweet rice cakes. People pay their respects to their ancestors and elders, and then they eat.

The centrepiece of the meal is a meat broth–based rice soup called duk guk. It has oval slices of firm rice cake in it and it is garnished with fried egg, dried seaweed, sesame seeds, a small amount of ground beef, and cooked carrot.

Eating the soup symbolizes aging. “In Korean culture, they [people] don’t age by your birthday, it’s by year,” Shin said. “So even though my birthday may be in October, it doesn’t matter. As soon as the New Year passes, I’m a year older, based on the annual calendar.

“You basically gain a year after you eat the soup,” Shin said. “Some kids would joke to their friends when they’re little, ”˜Oh, I had two bowls of duk guk, so I’m now two years older.’ ”

No matter who’s celebrating the lunar new year, symbolism is front and centre. In fact, what you don’t eat seems just as important as what you do. As Tet Festival attendee Nguyen told the Straight, “We [Vietnamese people] never eat duck. It’s bad luck.” Why? “Ducks walk really slowly”¦if you have a business, it will be slow in the coming year.”

For a taste of the lunar new year, you can buy banh chung at Vietnamese grocery stores. The Korean community celebrates on Friday (February 16) at the Bell Centre for the Performing Arts in Surrey. For more information, see www.c3society.com/.