Year of the Ox at Mystic Lake

Last night I went to a Vietnamese concert celebrating Chinese New Year at an Indian casino.

Yes. That's right. Read that sentence again if you must.

Only in Minnesota, perhaps, could such a conglomeration of cultures exist.

Let me explain. The concert was most definitely a Vietnamese affair. The line up was comprised of comedians and singers who performed almost exclusively in Vietnamese.

Hubby acted as my translator for some of the gigs, but mostly, I just watched. I was surprised that I was actually familiar with several of the songs performed. I guess all those Vietnamese CDs Hubby plays around the house had sunk in at some point.

Vietnamese culture celebrates Chinese New Year. I've never read up on exactly why this is. I'm assuming it has something to do with geographic proximity, the cultural dominance of the Chinese throughout Asia and the fact that a long time ago China ruled Vietnam. In Vietnamese, the holiday is called "tet."

Now, flash forward to present-day Minnesota and the Twin Cities, a metropolitan area with one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the U.S. Of course, tet is celebrated here.

And what better place to hold a concert than at a casino where there are dining and entertainment options galore?

The Mystic Lake Casino is owned and operated by a tribe of the Dakota people. It's located about 25 miles outside of downtown Minneapolis on reservation land. That said, though, the casino -- and the reservation for that matter -- are well within the bounds of suburbia.

The tribe has capitalized on this suburban location and is one of the wealthiest tribes in the country. Besides the casino, there is also a hotel, a golf course, an RV park, restaurants, event spaces and an auditorium that hosts people like Jay Leno, Jewel and Vince Gill.

It was in this auditorium that Hubby and I sat last night ... and so it was that we rang in Chinese New Year at an Indian casino with a Vietnamese concert.