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Thanh Nguyen, 35, an ethnic Vietnamese man living in Virginia, always returns home to Maryland during Tet (Lunar New Year). But this year the nurse decided to stay back and instead celebrate the festival with his parents by video call. "My Vietnamese parents are disappointed because I did not drive home to see them, but the Covid-19 pandemic is a good reason to not travel, especially when I work in a hospital with infection risks," he said. He also made several video calls to relatives in Vietnam for Lunar New Year, which falls on February 12 this year. "My mom sent me two banh chung and I bought some spring rolls. I will go to a nearby Buddhist temple to pray for a new year if it is not too crowded during the weekend." Nguyen is among many members of the Vietnamese diaspora in America who have celebrated the traditional holiday of their forefathers amid the raging pandemic with a lot of differences this year. Asian Garden Mall (Phuoc Loc Tho) is a popular place to celebrate Tet among Vietnamese in Westminster, California. Photo by Shutterstock/Hung Tran. In California, even though Governor Gavin Newsom lifted the stay-home order in late January in response to an improving situation, a move hailed by some Vietnamese ahead of their traditional holiday, many people still have their guard up and are not gathering with relatives or going to public places. "We will not go to Vietnamese malls or supermarkets since the places are always packed" Thao Nguyen, a banker in Orange County, California, said. Nguyen’s family canceled a party with relatives on the last day of the lunar year, which "always used to be an indispensable part of our Tet. " Instead, she had dinner and went to a nearby Buddhist temple without her parents, who are old and likely to be vulnerable to the coronavirus. In December 2020, according to health officials in Santa Clara County, California, the Vietnamese and Philippine communities were more severely affected …

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LUBBOCK, Texas -- A historic winter storm has killed at least 21 people, left millions of Texans without power and spun killer tornadoes into the U.S. Southeast on Tuesday. The brutal cold has engulfed vast swaths of the United States, shuttering COVID-19 inoculation centers and hindering vaccine supplies. It is not expected to relent until the weekend. Officials in Texas drew criticism as the state energy grid repeatedly failed, forcing rolling blackouts. Freezing weather stilled giant wind turbines that dot the West Texas landscape, making it impossible for energy companies to meet escalating demand. University student Corbin Antu found a way to snowboard in the flat West Texas plains town of Lubbock. He clung to a tow rope as friends in a pickup truck pulled him up and down silent white streets. “This is my first time snowboarding out in Lubbock. Trust me, it’s not disappointing,” Antu said. “There is so much powder out on the ground it feels like it’s Colorado almost.” Deaths, no power, vaccine delays At least 21 people have died in Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Missouri including four killed in a house fire in Sugar Land, Texas, where the power was out, according to police and local media. President Joe Biden assured the governors of hard-hit states that the federal government stands ready to offer any emergency resources needed, the White House said in a statement. Roger Hake gets an assist from his truck lights as he clears snow from his driveway before the sun comes up in Webster, near Rochester, New York, U.S. February 16, 2021. Photo : Jamie Germano/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle/USA Today Network via REUTERS Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a midday news conference that 1.3 million people in his city remain without power. The city is looking for businesses that still have power to open their doors as warming centers. “It’s critically, critically important to get the power restored as quickly as possible. It’s …

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On a spring morning in January, about a month before the Lunar New Year, Mong Phuoc Minh was busy installing a homemade iron bed in the back of a recently purchased 7-seater car in the yard of his house in An Giang Province's Long Xuyen Town. "This year, my wife and I plan to go on a 4,000 km road trip from Long Xuyen to Saigon, then to Da Lat and Kon Tum; and later to Laos and Cambodia before returning to An Giang. This is the same route that I used for my first trans-country road trip on motorbike more than nine years ago," said Minh, a former professor at the Can Tho University. Minh and his wife in the backyard of their house in Long Xuan Town, An Giang Province, in January, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Diep Phan. Though they were passionate about traveling since their youth, it was only in 2011 that the couple prepared for their field trip. That year, he and a group of photography friends discussed a trip to Laos and Cambodia on their motorbike. Unfortunately, everyone bailed at the last minute. "If no one is going. We will go by ourselves," said his wife Nguyen Thi Ngoc Cuc. To prepare for their first overseas trip on a motorbike, the grandparents went on a few short trips. At the end of March 2012, they officially departed on a Daehan model that they’d bought in 1990, taking clothes, medicines and vehicle repair tools along. "My wife was also careful enough to bring cups, a kettle, food containers and a mini rice cooker," Minh recalled. Traveling by motorbike was not easy hard, but the rewards were great. After crossing the Bo Y Border Gate in Kon Tum to get to Laos, the couple traveled 120 km through a forest to reach Laos's Attapeu Province. With no house on either side of the road, the couple felt they had the majestic mountain forest scene to themselves. "Many times, we were so amazed by the beautiful scenery that we didn't pay attention to the distance," he said. After the success of their first trip, Minh suggested to his wife …

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