By Lori Berkey, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury –Truc Nguyen left his homeland of Vietnam in 1991 to settle in the United States. In recent years, the Shrewsbury resident has been drawn to do his part to help his surrounding community learn about and preserve Vietnamese traditions. Currently serving as president of the nonprofit organization, the Vietnamese Community of Worcester County, Nguyen is excited about the group’s upcoming Tết celebration of the Vietnamese New Year.
Run entirely by volunteers, the Vietnamese Community of Worcester County works to share and sustain Vietnamese culture with the community and the next generation. The organization holds annual events such as a Remembrance of the Fall of Saigon in 1975 rite and a Lunar New Year celebration in support of the Vietnamese community.
“Tết, also known as the Lunar New Year, is the most celebrated holiday event of the year,” Nguyen said. “In the Vietnamese culture almost everyone loves to take a week off to celebrate this festival, to honor our ancestors, to reconnect and strengthen bonds with families, and to bring joy and happiness to children with gifts.”
This year, the organization’s Year of the Rat Tết celebration is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 8, at Saint George Orthodox Cathedral, 30 Anna St., in Worcester from 12 to 5 p.m.
According to Nguyen, the event typically brings hundreds of people from the Vietnamese Community of Worcester County together to strengthen their common bonds. The celebration includes activities such as the traditional lion dance, local and well-known national singers, youth dancers, a performance from martial art groups, an Ao Dai fashion show and many more activities.
Nguyen is one of many of the group’s volunteers who dream of opening a Vietnamese class for children. They are currently trying to raise funds for this project as well as recruit additional volunteers.
This year’s Tết celebration will have two parts – a free daytime traditional celebration with cultural performances by the local groups and a new, nighttime dance party focusing to raise funds for high school scholarships, opening Vietnamese classes to the youth, and supporting the organization’s annual events.
According to Nguyen, originally, the organization was mainly run by first-generation immigrants. This year, with many of the members’ fathers and uncles retiring, several from the “1.5 generation” who were not “American-born” took over leadership. Second generation members are those born in the United States, he explained.
A member of the organization since 2015, Nguyen was inspired to take on a bigger role this year when he stepped up as president. He expects that with their full energy and American education background, the team will make their dream come true.
“I take [my new responsibility as president] seriously because people trust me and because I want to challenge myself,” he said. “I’m an engineer and most of my life is dealing with numbers, troubleshooting and fixing problems. When I do volunteer for the community, it is a total different experience. It helps me to get out of my comfort zone, it teaches me how to give.”
Nguyen enjoys celebrating Tet at home with his family with a gathering around a big meal, but he also relishes the opportunity to celebrate broadly with the larger community.
“I enjoy the most when I watch the elderly perform…,” he said. “It reminds me my childhood time.”
