Mongol experiences: Tsagaan Sar (White Moon), Mongolian Lunar New Year

According to the Mongolian Dictionary & Phrasebook, this holiday has been going on for more than 2000 years. The color white is associated with purity and happiness. This holiday originally marked "the end of the cold winter and the beginning of the spring thaw" for the herders. It usually occurs in February and has become associated in the non-nomad homes with the new lunar year, which is now the dragon. It is a three day holiday similar to Thanksgiving because of visiting friends and family, eating and drinking. Fatty sheep butt replaces the turkey, buhz (steamed dumplings filled with meat and onions) act as the hors d'ouvres, and the vodka flows freely.

There are many customs that Pam and I were coached on including how to enter a ger (always enter and move in a clockwise direction), bringing a khadag, a blue Buddhist piece of silk, to present to the oldest person in the ger, and on how to greet elders or younger folk. Greetings involve cheek kissing and hand placement. A younger person always places his or her hands facing upwards under the elbows of an elder. This shows respect. Another custom is to drink the entire first offering of vodka but, after that, one can place the ring finger of one's right hand in the vodka and flick some upwards, straight out in front and to the ground honoring the sky, people and Earth. If you've had your fill of vodka, you then touch the ring finger to your forehead, indicating that you've had enough. (I kept missing that part as we sat with a herder's family in the country.) When receiving or giving some food or drink, it is always handled with the right hand while the left hand is under the right elbow, or it is given and received with both hands. In both cases, the shirt sleeves are pulled down. This is definitely a challenging place for left handers and a great place to retire for old school nuns that believe everything should be done right handed. There is also a center piece of specially made oblong, cookie type biscuits that are stacked in odd numbers of layers. The odd-numbered layers represent 'happiness' and the even-numbered layers represent 'suffering'. The top layer should end in 'happiness'. The older the head of the ger is, the higher the stack of biscuits.

We were introduced to the horses the herder raised for racing and shown the number of medals that his kids had won. The racers are young boys up to, I believe, 10 years of age but can begin at 4 or 5. On our way back to UB, we stopped at an ovoo, a pile of sacred rocks which often have a stick in the center and prayer flags or silks attached to the stick. For good luck while traveling, one circles the rocks clockwise three times before continuing on the journey. Fortunately this does not have to be done at each ovoo that is passed, or it could take weeks to go 20 kilometers.

Since the holiday we've had many days of temps in single negative digits which has now almost become balmy to us. The other surprise is the disappearance of a significant amount of snow and ice even though we've yet to go above freezing. Since this winter didn't kill us, we're feeling stronger and have new definitions of cold, warm and hot. We've also developed better timing of when to place that right ring finger to our foreheads.

Just trying to fit in.

The buhz are in the small dish to the right, and the small silver bowl just in front of the buhz is for the vodka. In the background is the fatty sheep butt. The tower is made of layers of biscuits, and the top is covered with dried cheese/yogurt pieces.