Tet and the City: How NYC's Vietnamese American Creatives Are Celebrating Lunar New Year

"Storefronts are papered with red envelopes, subway riders carry bags laden with fruit, and the multiple Chinatowns across the city's boroughs have a renewed, bustling energy. Photographer Anh Nguyen recently trailed six Vietnamese American creatives as they made arrangements for Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year and the most important holiday in Vietnam. Between busy days, deadlines, shoots, and sets-not to mention Fashion Week this year-they build altars, steam sticky rice, phone family across time zones, and rehearse traditions learned at their parents' elbows."

"Some 23,000 New Yorkers are of Vietnamese descent, a relatively smaller community compared to places like San José and Orange County in California or Houston. Plus, "the New York put-your-head-down-and-hustle mentality can be isolating," as artist and actor Lynn Kim Đỗ puts it. "We're missing the community here, so we gotta make it our own." For these stylists, chefs, DJs, actors, and designers, Lunar New Year is not a pause from creative life but an extension of it:"

Six Vietnamese American creatives in New York prepare for Tết amid hectic professional schedules, balancing deadlines, shoots, and Fashion Week with family rituals. They build altars, steam sticky rice, carve fruits, phone relatives across time zones, and rehearse traditions learned from their parents. A community of roughly 23,000 in the city makes deliberate efforts to recreate communal bonds and cultural continuity despite the isolating hustle mentality. For these artists, Lunar New Year extends creative practice through floral arrangements, elaborate food spreads, and music for ancestor offerings. Preparations prioritize intention, recalibrating space, spirit, and self while honoring the past and making room for the year ahead.

Read at Vogue