SAN DIEGO — San Diego's largest Lunar New Year festival is back.
The annual three-day San Diego Tet Festival kicked off Friday in Mira Mesa.
“It is the welcoming of spring, so end of winter based on the lunar cycle. Typically Lunar New Year is very popular throughout the Asian culture," said Alan Tran, with the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance.
Hundreds showed out for day one to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.
“It’s amazing," Tran said. "You have such unique things such as the lion dancing, you have a lot of the décor and then also the props and the cultural villages. It’s a lot of time for family."
“We try to go every year. My parents they came to the U.S., they’re Vietnam war refugees so I feel like participating in the culture and, you know, enriching your life with it is really important," said San Diegan, Yvienne Tao.
The festival is bigger than ever this year with more food vendors than any other year.
“It’s a fun time, I have Vietnamese friends, we love Vietnamese food. My wife is half Chinese so they celebrate lunar new year so there’s lots of reasons to come and see what’s going on," said San Diegan, Alex Kane.
For many, this new year promises to bring good fortune.
“The dragon is unique in that, in all 12 animals in the zodiac it’s the only one that is mythical all the other ones are not. “It’s a very popular year to have, for example, have children born those years and they would have ideal traits of greatness but also a good luck year for a lot of families as well,” added Tran.
Kane was born in 1988, making him a dragon. He and his wife are expecting a child this year, who will also be a dragon.
“I have a child due this year that’s going to be a dragon. We don’t know if it's going to be a boy or a girl so that’s kind of exciting,” said Kane.
The three-day festival features lion dances, a Cultural Village, the Miss Vietnam Pageant, and Vietnamese food, music and vendors.
The San Diego Tet festival attracts more than 30,000 people each year. It's held at Mira Mesa Park, 8575 New Salem St.
The free event runs through Sunday. For more information, click here.
WATCH RELATED: Tet Lunar New Year festival kicks off in San Diego