Families in City Heights will gather this week to prepare traditional Vietnamese rice cakes as part of the 2026 San Diego Lunar New Year Festival. The interactive workshop focuses on the assembly of bánh tét, a central element of the Vietnamese New Year celebrations. Participants will meet at Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park on Thursday, February 12, ahead of the festival's full weekend schedule. The workshop comes as San Diego to celebrate Year of the Fire Horse in City Heights with a series of cultural events. Bánh tét is a cylinder-shaped cake made from glutinous rice and mung beans. These ingredients are wrapped in banana leaves and slow-cooked for several hours. Traditionally, families spend the days leading up to the holiday preparing these cakes together to honour ancestors. Organisers from Little Saigon San Diego intended the activity to be a hands-on lesson for younger generations. Parents and children will work together to fold the leaves and tie the cakes. The goal is to provide a space where the technique and cultural history of the food can be passed down directly. Funding and supplies for the workshop are provided by Viễn Đông Supermarket and World Foods Supermarket.
Preserving tradition through food
Victoria Ricasata, owner of World Foods Supermarket, says the sight of the rice cakes signals the arrival of the new year. She says that making bánh tét together connects people to foods that have always been part of the holiday. The preparation process is notoriously labour-intensive. It often requires family members to sit together for extended periods while the cakes boil. The City Heights event is one of many local initiatives focused on cultural education. Similar efforts have been seen in other sectors, such as when a Poway school garden receives $14,000 grant for orchard expansion to teach students about agriculture. In City Heights, the focus remains on urban cultural preservation within the Vietnamese-American enclave. Little Saigon San Diego has structured the activity to facilitate conversation between older and younger residents. By handling the ingredients and tying the cakes, children learn the physical skills required for the tradition. This shared effort aims to keep the custom alive outside of a commercial setting. The festival organisers argue that tradition lives within these family interactions rather than just in the event itself.
Festival schedule and activities
The bánh tét making serves as a precursor to the main festival, which runs from February 13 to February 15. The three-day event is free and open to the public. Beyond the food workshops, the schedule includes lantern decorating and a "Tree of Luck" activity. The park will also host lion dance performances, which are a staple of Lunar New Year festivities across the globe. Sports will also feature in the weekend lineup. The festival will host the 2nd Annual Lunar New Year Soccer Tournament. This reflects a broader trend of using sport to engage youth in local celebrations. A similar approach was recently taken in Western Australia, where a new inclusive sports program launches for Mandurah children to improve local participation. According to City of San Diego park records, Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park has become a frequent site for these large-scale cultural gatherings. The venue is located at 4455 Wightman Street. It serves one of the most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in the county. The festival organisers expect visitors from across San Diego to attend the weekend sessions.
Wider cultural impact
The emphasis on bánh tét highlights the specific Vietnamese customs often grouped under the broader Lunar New Year label. While many cultures celebrate the lunar cycle, the ingredients and shapes of the celebratory foods vary significantly. For the organisers, highlighting the bánh tét ensures that specific Vietnamese-American identities are represented within the city's festive calendar. This focus on heritage aligns with school district changes in the region. San Diego Unified updates directory for magnet school programmes regularly to reflect the diverse needs of its student body. Cultural competency and the preservation of heritage languages and customs have become key parts of local education and community outreach. The festival concludes on Sunday evening after three days of performances and food sales. Organisers have confirmed that admission remains free for all attendees, including seniors and families. The bánh tét making session on Thursday will begin the celebrations before the main gates open on Friday afternoon. Residents can find more information through the Little Saigon San Diego website.
