If you can't be back in Vietnam, "This is the place to be," said San Jose resident Hong Ho, who came to the shopping center with her husband to drink in the atmosphere.

Although the Lunar New Year is often described as Christmas and New Year's Day combined, in Asia it's an even splashier holiday that can stretch on for two weeks. In Beijing, so many students and migrant families flood train ticket offices on the way home that it can seem as if the population of a midsized city in the United States is jammed on one platform. In Ho Chi Minh City, people scrape together as much money as they can before squeezing onto overcrowded buses to get back to their villages for days of eating and drinking. In Taipei, Taiwan, throngs head to Buddhist temples to pay respects to the gods and pack the Dihua Street outdoor market every night to eat grilled sausages and sticky milk candies.

"It's really exciting," said John Hsieh, a Hayward insurance agent who left Taiwan in the late 1970s. "The city is busy because there are lots of celebrations and good food stands outside."

Like other Asians in the valley, the region's large Vietnamese community has imported long-held beliefs and practices surrounding the winter holiday. Homes are filled with blossoming trees and flowers to signify harmony. Families put platters of fruit, candies and even beer on altars to their ancestors as acts of devotion and remembrance. They burn sticks of incense to symbolize the ties between heaven and earth.

Red envelopes

"We always have chicken on New Year's Eve," said Thu Anh Do, executive director of the Milpitas-based nonprofit VNHELP. "Everyone has to cook a whole chicken, even with the head. We put flowers in the mouth. We pay respect to our ancestors and God. Then we cut it up."

Children receive red envelopes, which are full of money and represent good luck. Adults often require them to pay formal respects to their elders, or chuc Tet, with words of thanks and well-wishing along with deep bows before receiving their gifts.

"The night before, I would practice," recalled San Jose Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen. "You would not get a good red envelope unless you gave proper greetings."

The first day of the Vietnamese New Year is often reserved for family. It can even be considered bad luck for a friend or other outsider to visit the home on that day.

"A lot of families uphold that tradition," Nguyen said. "Even if you don't believe it, you don't want to step into their house. What if they believe it and the rest of the year they have bad luck? It's my fault!"