Lunar New Year celebrations take off in San Jose

Lauren Martinez Image
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Lunar New Year celebrations take off in San Jose
From lion dances and firecrackers to themed sweet treats, Lunar New Year celebrations are getting underway in San Jose.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Lunar New Year celebrations are getting underway San Jose.

Outside Lion Plaza, vendors are selling fresh fruit, flowers, firecrackers and more.

Inside Love Me Knots Bridal, owner Christina Bui showed us Ao Dais, new clothing for women and men to celebrate Tet.

"A new year brings in new everything - luck, health, prosperity," Bui said.

Bui said for the first time in a few years, this outdoor market with a wide range of traditional Vietnamese goods was able to return.

"We had you know three different property managers that were here and I don't think they understood the importance of our Lunar New Year. Just seeing people walking about and bringing foot traffic back in here, that excites me already," Bui said.

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Ten minutes away, is Grand Century Mall. On Friday evening, people were putting up finishing touches at several stages for celebrations on Saturday and Sunday.

Over at the Eastridge Mall, organizers with the San Jose Tet Festival will be celebrating their tenth year with the community.

Jody Ngo is the president of UStar Productions.

"I want to do something different, bigger, nicer," Ngo said.

The free three-day event kicks off Feb. 7.

The popular lion dances will be held on each day of the festival.

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During the second weekend of February, San Francisco will host the NBA All-Star Game, the Chinese New Year Parade and it'll also be Valentine's Day.

"They have the drum, and a lot of like noise sound, with the dancing like that they scare all the bad, evil away, so you have to put the lion dance in any important holiday," Ngo said.

People drive from Sacramento and further to this Tet festival.

"Like mini vacation for them, so and celebrate the culture too, so I think that's the reason they come far away," Ngo said.

At Academic Coffee, Vietnamese dishes inspire their -year of the snake drink specials.

Owner Frank Nguyen and his team created the Snake Bite, a Honey Habanero Latte and the Red Boat Caramel Latte with fish sauce.

"It makes me so happy, like I feel so hyped up to talk about the drinks," Nguyen said.

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They had the Red Boad Caramel latte a couple of years ago and brought it back by popular demand.

"And when people hear about it they get a little scared, but you cook the caramel the fish sauce cooks off and all your left with is a salted caramel umami flavor. I'm excited for you guys to try it," Nguyen said.

So we did. It tasted sweet, salty, and good!

The 2025 Lunar New Year officially starts Jan. 29.

Frances Wong, director of marketing and communications with Visit San Jose, encourages anyone to check out their list of family friendly events happening throughout San Jose here.

"The fact that we have so many celebrations, too many to count is such a blessing to our region because it really speaks to that diversity," Wong said.

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