WESTMINSTER, Calif. – Celebrating the Lunar New Year is a big deal in Westminster.

Alan Vo Ford is one of the organizers of the parade. It starts at 8 a.m. on January 25 near Bolsa Avenue and Magnolia Street ending at Bushard Street.

Ford was born in 1975 during the final month of the Vietnam War. His dad was taken to prison by communists for nine years, in the meantime his mom had to raise six kids. Once they reunited the family left for America.

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“Trying to keep the tradition is what we try to do,” said Ford.

Tet is the celebration of the Lunar New Year. It is the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar.

“It is the fourth of July, Christmas, Easter. It’s everything rolled into one,” said Andrew Do, the parade’s Grand Marshal.

Do was 12-years-old when his family came to America and he was 6-years-old during the Tet offensive.

The Tet offensive was a coordinated series of attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam just as the country was shut down for its most important holiday.

Even though he remembers the blasts and bullets, there is a reason Do won’t dwell on Tet’s bloodstained memories.

“You want to be as positive as possible because the thinking is if you are negative in the beginning of the year then that negativity may carry with you for the rest of the year,” said Do.

The first Tet celebration in Westminster was in 1982.