Têt traditions usher in New Year at Seattle Center

The children stood near the stage and shook out their jitters. It was the Lunar New Year festival Saturday, and the Vietnamese martial-arts crew was itching to get going.

They waited through a long introduction, first in Vietnamese, then English. When the "Mission: Impossible" music cued, they nearly jumped out of their blue robes with American flags sewn on the sleeves. It was time to show their moves.

This weekend's Têt Festival at Seattle Center is going on its 14th year and is expected to bring out between 5,000 to 10,000 people to celebrate the cultural roots of Vietnam and Vietnamese Americans. It's also the Year of the Tiger.

The theme this year is "Splendor of Regions in Vietnam." The event features food, fashion and music from Vietnam's northern, central and southern regions, said Marque Bui, finance chairman for Têt in Seattle, which organizes the festival.

"The goal is to promote and preserve Vietnamese culture," Bui said. "And this is a great way to showcase that."

About 30,000 people of Vietnamese origin live in King County, according to 2008 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. And coming together at such events helps keep the community spirit going, said Ngoc-Huong Nguyen, 31, from Kent, who has attended the festival for years.

Inside the Center House hall on Saturday, vendors sold traditional cuisine and clothing. Some gave away free fake tattoos, and others touted dental services. One booth displayed "best practices" for nail parlors — many of which are owned by Vietnamese immigrants — to keep salons safe and clean.

In the audience, young children sat on their parents' laps, craning their necks for a better view of the martial-arts group onstage.

Known as Vovinam, the self-defense system is based on peaceful ways to explore combat, said Linh Thai, one of the members of the group, based in the New Holly neighborhood. Violence plays no part, he said.

Vovinam's message and philosophy are a call to promote strength and serve humanity, no matter what age or sex or background, Thai added. The idea is to unite with one another.

As the girls and boys tumbled over each other and through the air, the tags they wore bearing American names like Bill, Alex and Kenny became unnoticeable.

Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546 or skrishnan@seattletimes.com