CHARLOTTE — Members and guests of St. Joseph Vietnamese Church welcomed the Lunar New Year at the Têt Festival that took place Jan. 24-26.
The festival featured music, games and delicious traditional Vietnamese food, as well as thanksgiving for the blessings received during the past year.
Members of the parish’s renowned Hidden Dragon Lion Dance youth group also performed during the festival.
It is tradition that, at the end of the Sunday Mass, the youngest parishioners received a red envelope with a dollar bill inside.
During the Dragon dance, people placed the bill inside the mouths of the dancing dragons, hoping to receive prosperity in the coming year.
The year 2020, according to the lunar calendar, corresponds to the sign of the rat, a protective animal that carries prosperity.
— Photos by César Hurtado, Catholic News Herald
