Year of the Horse at A Nan Monastery, Gainesville (February 22, 2026)
Lunar New Year, or Tết, was celebrated worldwide on February 17, 2026, bringing in the Year of the Horse. You may recall that we recently celebrated New Year with a similar Vietnamese-style earlier at the Night Market in January 2026.
This year, the Tu Viện A Nan Monastery, in Gainesville, put together a phenomenal festival to celebrate Vietnamese, Buddhist faith, and the Year of the Horse (the rapid change and unfenced freedom). The temple sits on a large open area that is dubbed the Buddhist Statue Garden. There are five or six very large Buddhist, plus various other statues throughout the area. Parking was a bit of a nightmare, as there were not enough room for all the people in attendance.
The schedule started off with a speech from the director of the A Nan Monastery. This is followed by a long introduction to the rules of making traditional bánh tét. This requires rolling the ingredients in a certain order and then wrapping the whole thing in banana leaves. It looks like a lot of fun, but the way it was set up, you could not really see anything.
After the contest, we got ca sĩ (singers) Dang the Luan, Lee Lan, Dieu Loc, Ha Vy, Voung Tran, TK Trina, Dang Anh Tuan, and Thao Vo (as mentioned in the poster) taking the stage to sing traditional Vietnamese songs. The back-up band featured Dinh Phuc on guitars and Minh Dinh on drums.
By noon, the UF Lion Dance Team had setup the firework area and geared up with drums and the two lions started slowly moving down to the goal. There was a red and a yellow lion, and they put on a good show as soon as the firecrackers were lit. The explosion and the smoke were discomforting for people nearby, but the two lions danced and move accordingly. It was cool, and it was a much better experience than the Lion dance from January.
After the dance, the schedule mentioned Red Envelope giveaway, as well as a Bingo Game.
Note: due to the Buddhist faith, all the food sold (which supports the temple) did not contain any meat. Instead, tofu or mushrooms were used instead.
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