Ulaanbaatar, 4 February 2022 (TDI): Every year at the confluence of winter and spring, Mongolians celebrate “Tsagaan Sar,” or Mongolian Lunar New Year. The exact date is determined by the lunar calendar.
In this way, it is usually celebrated on a new moon day around the end of January or early February. Similar to other Asian lunar calendars, the Mongol year has followed a lunar calendar with a 12-year animal cycle since ancient times.
Therefore, Tsagaan is a three-day festival in Mongolia that marks the end of winter and the beginning of a blooming spring in the new year. It is the most well-known family holiday for visiting parents, relatives, and friends. The festival of the Lunar New Year is celebrated by the Mongols and some Turkic people. The holiday has shamanistic influences
Tsagaan Sar Celebration in Mongolia
The festival also denotes a prosperous and healthy life. People begin plans to celebrate Tsagaan Sar one month in advance. In this way, families prepare hundreds to thousands of buuz (big dumplings) and bansh (small dumplings).
In addition, they make a lot of food for their families, neighbors, and friends that come to visit.
Animal gers, barns, and yards must be as clean as possible. Women make traditional dresses for each member of the family.
Celebration Details
On the other hand, Tsagaan Sar is celebrated in Mongolia in a variety of ways. The day before Tsagaan Sar is celebrated as “bituun,” or “no moon day. On this day, families prepare a feast of sheep rump, stacking layers of traditional cookies on huge platters in odd numbers and topping with sweets and dairy goods.
There’s airag (fermented mare’s milk), curd rice, steamed and boiling dumplings, and much more on the table.
When it gets dark, everyone dresses up finest clothes, gathers around the table, and eats as much as they can. Neighbors, relatives, and families wish and pay a visit to each other. Families place the three pieces of ice and hay at the entryway for the deity Baldan Lham and her mute.
It has been believed that the deity visits every home on the night of the no moon day. This ritual may be seen when spending Tsagaan Sar with families that live in gers.
The next morning, people wake up before sunrise, dress up in their best attire, and stroll in the zodiac-prescribed directions to begin the New Year in the right direction. This is surmised to bring good fortune in the future year.
The guys then climb the nearest hilltop or hill to see the first dawn of the year. Women prepare milk tea and dedicate the best of it to the soil and the shrine. Cook the large and tiny dumplings separately. The rituals begin with the rising of the sun.
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