Vietnamese Immigrants Welcome The New Year In/Around: Hillyard

Sunday afternoon 200 recent immigrants from Vietnam revisited the sounds and scents of their homeland - in a Hillyard basement.

Visitors to the Vietnamese Buddhist Temple celebrated the new year with laughter and a few tears.

“This is the biggest holiday of our year,” said Toi Mulligan, a longtime Spokane resident. “People come here to celebrate our traditional holidays.”

The scent of incense lingered in the temple. While families chatted happily, a Vietnamese rock band played folk songs. Young people took turns singing and dancing.

And everyone ate the sticky cake usually served on New Year’s.

“Everyone here is wishing everyone else a happy new year,” she said. “They’re wishing prosperity and health. In Vietnam we say, `We wish you fat,’ as sign of prosperity. Here everyone is scared of being fat.”

Mulligan is a member of the Vietnamese Buddhist Community of Spokane, which moved its services into an old white church building at N5025 Regal five years ago. Since then the temple has attracted about 150 members, almost entirely people who came to the United States in the past few years.

In Vietnam 80 percent of the people are Buddhists. But when they come to Spokane, there aren’t many places for them to express their faith - or their culture.

“Before we got this building, our people were homesick,” Mulligan said. “Most of our people have immigrated in the last four years.”

The North Regal building has become a cultural center for its members, most of whom don’t speak English yet, Mulligan said.

Inside, English is still a foreign language. Children and adults agree to speak Vietnamese. Leaders even offer Vietnamese language classes to make sure children don’t lose their native tongue.

“I don’t have time during the week to really speak Vietnamese to my son,” youth leader Thach Chau said. “But here he hears it.”

Thach Chau runs two youth groups. One is for Buddhist children. The other is a Vietnamese culture program for children and young adults.

Some youths know songs, dances and customs from home. Others are too young to remember much. Some young adults volunteer as teachers.

Adults use the social gatherings to talk about the transition into American culture, Mulligan said.

On Sunday, Diep Nguyen, a young man, stepped onto the stage and sang an upbeat love song that drew applause and smiles from the audience. Then a temple leader stood and reminded everyone that last New Year the same young man shed tears because he missed his mother, who was still in Vietnam.

The young man’s smile this year, the leader said, was warranted. His mother and family had arrived in Spokane only a few days before.