Happy Lunar New Year to everyone!

For those of you who are here celebrating Lunar New Year with us for the first time, I would like to let you know that Celebrating Lunar New Year is like celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, and everyone’s Birthday -- All at the same time!

For those of you who have traditionally celebrated Lunar New Year, I have two questions for you:

1. What do you remember the most about Lunar New Year?
2. How did you celebrate it?

Let me share with you my most memorable celebrations.

I still remember vividly that Lunar New Year. That New Year’s eve, my dad didn't sleep at all. Whenever I woke up, I saw him cooking rice cakes called Banh Day and Banh Chung: one white and round as the sky, the other steaming hot and square like the earth. We used them as special offerings to our ancestors, as well as special gifts to relatives and friends, during the New Year celebration.

While my dad was preparing the cakes, he put the final touches on our newly remodeled home: He was so happy to be able to repair our 8-year old roof in time to celebrate the New Year. My parents had spent so many days gathering new thatch, a long grass. By hand, they knitted the thatch together, attaching it to bamboo poles to make sheets, and then putting these sheets of roof covering into place.

At that time, most of the things in our house were made from trees, bamboo, and grass. We lived in a remote area, in the middle of a jungle in Central Vietnam, with no electricity, no running water, no cement, no paved road, and no radio.

When it was around 4 am, my dad woke us up. We got up right away because that was the time we could finally wear our new clothes and new shoes.

On New Year Day, we always went to Mass as a family to give thanks to God for the past year and ask for new blessings. Later, we visit our grandparents and relatives. We brought them best wishes and gifts and in return we received Lì Xì. On New Year’s Day, the younger ones receive some money from the older ones as a sign of prosperity, happiness, and longevity.

As we were preparing ourselves to go to Mass, my uncle, a younger brother of my mom, quietly entered our home and whispered: “No mass, no mass! Hurry and get into my bunker! The North Communist Army is already in our village!”

My dad took his gun and accompanied us to my uncle’s home across the road. Then, after we all got into the bunker, he left for battle. The rest of us stayed there hiding for few days. We spent most of our time in praying, especially for peace.

One afternoon, we heard the voice of my other uncle, a younger brother of my dad:

“Chi Khiem are you there? Chi Khiem where are you?”

When my mom heard her name, she crawled up out of the bunker. Then we heard her crying and crying.

My dad was wounded.

After that moment, we wish and prayed for nothing else than my dad's safe return home to us. Thanks be to God, my dad came home few weeks later.

That was Lunar New Year 1968, better known as the Tet Offensive. Since then, I believe in the power of prayers, and always give God thanks for He knows what I need!

Yes, the power of prayers saved me on the high seas in late summer 1980, when I escaped from Vietnam. After being chased and shot at by the polices, not once, but twice, we encountered a violent storm on the high seas. Each giant wave was like two-story house that kept falling on us, again and again. If you watched the movie: Perfect Storm, then you can relate with me now. We were at the point of no return: Going forward, we were in the middle of the storm. Going back, we were also in the middle of storm.

Thirty-eight of us were struggling to survive in a small fishing boat, 10 feet wide, 28 feet long. While we were hopelessly waiting to die, we prayed together day and night. Buddhists joined Catholics in praying rosaries. The Mother of God saved us and brought us to a small island in the Philippines.

I don't have any collection of celebrating that Lunar New Year, in 1981. We didn’t celebrate because we didn't know what date it was. No people were around. We ate whatever we could find. Later that year, we were transferred to a refugee camp.

After two years in the Philippines, I celebrated my first Lunar New Year in the United States with loneliness. I was so homesick, for I was alone in this country. I felt lost in a foreign land with a different language, different cultures, and different customs.

On that actual day of Lunar New Year, I went to school to learn English in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to my job at an elementary school outside of Seattle, Washington, where I worked as a janitor.

As usual, after vacuuming the carpet and cleaning the toilets, I collected the trash and brought it out to the dumpster. As I looked into the trash can, I noticed some brown paper bags.

Do you know what they were?

They were lunch bags. Parents had packed sandwiches, oranges and apples for their children. The children didn't eat them and were afraid to bring them back home. So they just threw them away into the trash!

I looked at them and said to myself: Oh my God! Just a year ago, I didn't have anything to eat while I was on an island in the Philippines. My family in Vietnam now also struggles to find daily bread. Here, food is thrown away.

Do you know what I did then? I saved them for my dinner and lunch the next day.

Since that Lunar New Year in 1983, I am always grateful for what I have. I began to pray for those who do not have what I have. Here, we receive so many blessings compared with other people in the world.

Last year, I returned to Vietnam. It was my first Lunar New Year celebration with my family after twenty years. My dad was no longer there to celebrate with us. He passed away seven years ago. Seven years was also my age when my dad replaced the roof of our home.

Now, we don't have to change any roof. We have electricity, telephone, television, but we don't have enough money to celebrate Lunar New Year. Our uncles got together and decided that we would not follow the custom of bringing gifts to one another. Li Xi was not expected.

Sadly, Lunar New Year has now become a financial burden for many parents, who want to give their children new clothes, new shoes, new toys, but they cannot afford them for they don't make enough money.

When I grew up, my village consisted of about 1,500 people, and everyone knew each other. Now, it has about 18,000 people, and everyone worries about crime. My village has the same amount of land but more people live there, the same jobs but so many laborers. And those who are lucky enough to work only receive the equivalent of about one dollar per day.

That is what faces Vietnam nowadays. More than 80 million Vietnamese including 5.3 million Catholics lives in a land area the size of California. The land remains the same, but the population is growing.

Celebrating Year of the Horse, we recognize that horses are limited to only certain number of Vietnamese. Millions others have to go on in their life, without horses, but continue in the Spirit of Horses as we do here.

In here, we celebrate Lunar New Year together. Out there, our country goes to war against terrorism.

In Afghanistan, many children experience life without parents, they become orphans. So many families have no house to live in, they become homeless. In refugee camps, people experience hunger and insecurity; they see no future.

So as we together continues to celebrate Lunar New Year today, let us remind ourselves and one another to thank God for what we have here and now. Let us also ask ourselves: How we can use God’s gifts wisely in order to help others. And above all, on this joyous day of celebration, let us pray for God's blessings on those who are less fortunate than we are.