When Is Mongolian New Year: Mongolians call the New Year “Tsagaan Sar,” and it is one of the biggest events in the country. Weeks or even months before the moon feast, things start getting ready. For Tsagaan Sar, which means the start of spring, life, and the birth of new things are symbolized.
The Hun Empire, which is credited with creating the lunar calendar, is where Mongolia’s New Year celebrations got their start. The festival of Tsagaan Sar was named an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO because of how important and special it is. Mongolia has always surprised tourists with its wide range of cultures. Before you plan a trip to Mongolia, you should learn about some of the most interesting and important parts of this event.
How Mongolia celebrates New Year
Mongolia’s New Year, Tsagaan Sar, is celebrated from late January to mid-February. This is because of the harsh winter, which puts the animals of nomadic farmers at risk. Though Tsagaan Sar is mostly a time for family reunions, it also has other events and traditions that make it stand out.
The name Tsagaan Sar, which means “White Moon,” means that the coming year will be one of spiritual purity. Mongols would often ride a white horse, dress in all white, and only eat dairy during the rituals. Hundreds of thousands of people are going back home for the holidays, which is Mongolia’s biggest yearly movement of people. This stops the economy for a while and causes a huge traffic jam. Families start cleaning their homes, fixing broken things, cooking holiday foods, and sewing new traditional clothes a month before the festival. Everyone gets together at their parents’ or grandparents’ house on New Year’s Eve to toast the coming year’s wealth and success.
Everybody buys new clothes on January 1, and men always climb the nearby hill to see the first light of the year. As a way to help the earth, women make milk tea together. Following that, people go to see friends, neighbors, and family. When people come over, the hosts smoke snuff and then serve milk tea, cheese, hot beef dumplings (buuz), and other treats. When guests leave, the hosts show their appreciation by giving them gifts. In recent years, this tradition has become more expensive. Families often take out loans to pay for expensive gifts for big groups of guests, up to 100 people in some cases.
How do Mongolians celebrate Tsagaan Sar?
When people in Mongolia meet each other, even when they are family, they usually hold out their arms with their palms facing up. Younger people may support older people at the elbows and kiss them on both cheeks. In some cases, they may also wear a blue scarf called a Khadag as a sign of respect. “Amar sain bain uu?” means “How are you?” and the elder replies, “Mendee, Amar sain uu?” which means “Fine, and you?” After greetings, family members go to the homes of parents, older people, cousins, friends, and other people in the community.
First, younger people go to the homes of older people to meet them and eat traditional foods like milk tea and dumplings. The official length of this ceremony is three days, but if family members have to drive far to see each other, the party may last longer.
How do Mongolians celebrate Tsagaan Sar?
There is no moon on this day, which is called “bitumen” and comes before Tsagaan Sar. Families make a feast with sheep rump and unusually shaped cookies on this day, putting them on big plates with chocolates and cheese.
There are many tasty foods on the table, such as curd-cooked rice, steamed and boiled dumplings, and Airag, a sour mare’s milk drink. People dress up, meet around the table, and eat a big meal as night falls. Families, friends, and other relatives are welcome to visit each other during this time.
On Tsagaan Sar Eve, people think that the goddess Baldan Lham visits families. As a special tradition, three pieces of ice and hay are laid at the door for the goddess and her silence. This is especially done by families who live in gers when they celebrate Tsagaan Sar.
Traditions of Mongolia New Year
The Mongol year has been based on a lunar calendar with a 12-year animal cycle since ancient times. This is the same as other Asian lunar calendars.
The start of the New Year is a sign of nature’s renewal and the coming of spring. The name “White Month” comes from the fact that dairy goods like milk are easier to find in the spring.
A month before Tsagaan Sar, people start getting ready for the event by making or buying new clothes and dumplings.
The celebrations start with a family feast on “Bituun,” the day before Tsagaan Sar. The food is full of traditional meals.
Some people get up early on Tsagaan Sar morning to celebrate the start of a new year. After the sun comes up, a tradition called “their first steps of the year” is held to wish for health and wealth in the coming year. The direction of these first steps is determined by the moon’s year of birth. In this case, someone born in the year of the mouse must take their first steps north on the first day of the monkey year. The direction will be changed next year to keep people’s active involvement.
Lunar Mongolian New Year or Tsagaan Sar
Mongolian Lunar New Year, also called Tsagaan Sar or White Moon, has been a celebration of the start of spring and a sign of peace, goodness, purity, and rebirth since Genghis Khan founded the Great Mongol Empire in the 1300s. There is more to the three-day New Year’s party than just a fireworks show and a countdown to midnight.
It’s a one-of-a-kind chance to take part in traditional Mongolian celebrations and old New Year practices. You can eat the unique Lunar New Year cakes called buuz, learn traditional Tsagaansar games and arm salutations, watch Mongolian wrestling, and even take pictures of yourself dressed up as nomads do during this time of year.
Tenger will celebrate the Lunar New Year from January 25 to January 27, 2020. Get a look at the Sundowners Overland Tours to enjoy these events. Please talk to one of our travel agents for more details.
Do Mongolians celebrate New Year?
Usually, Mongolians celebrate it on a new moon day at the end of January or February for three days seeing off the winter end and welcoming a flourishing spring of the new year. It is a popular family holiday to visit parents, relatives, neighbors, and friends.
Mongolians have a happy New Year called Tsagaan Sar, which lasts from late January to mid-February. The long, hard winter put hundreds of their animals in danger, so this event, which marks the start of spring, is very important to the country’s nomadic farmers. Both Tsagaan Sar and its Chinese cousin are holidays that honor family reunions, but the ways that they are celebrated and the traditions that people follow are different.
The name Tsagaan Sar, which means “White Moon,” stands for the spirit of purity or whiteness for the coming year. During the celebrations, Mongols used only to eat dairy products, ride white horses, and dress in all white. For the holiday, thousands of people go back home, which starts Mongolia’s biggest yearly migration of people. The economy is briefly slowed down by this huge movement, which also causes a lot of traffic.
One month before Tsagaan Sar, the event starts to be planned. In honor of the important holiday, families clean their homes, fix broken things, make holiday dinners, and buy or sew new traditional clothes. On New Year’s Eve, families eat until they are full at their parents’ or grandparents’ houses. This is a sign that they want lots of good things to happen in the coming year.
What is Lunar New Year call in Mongolia?
Tsagaan Sar
How Mongolia celebrates Lunar New Year (Tsagaan Sar) From late-January to mid-February, Mongolia celebrates its new year, Tsagaan Sar. It is the most joyous occasion for the country’s nomadic herders as it marks the coming of spring after the long and harsh winter where hundreds of their animals can freeze to death.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Temuujin brought together a number of wandering groups that had been separate until then. They became The Great Mongol Empire. This important coming together happened in the last month of winter during the Third Jaran, which is also known as the Buddhist Century. In the Year of the Ox, or more accurately, in the first month of the Red Tiger year (1206), Temuujin became king. He took the name “Chinggis Khan,” which means “Great Khan.”
It’s been eight hundred years since the important day when the month of Tigers was picked to start Mongolia’s Lunar New Year. A Mongolian holiday called Tsagaan Sar, which translates to “White Month” in English, is celebrated once a year. The Mongols have held this big holiday for 800 years. It marks the start of the lunar year every spring.
What do Mongolia eat on New Year?
During the greeting ceremony, family members hold long, typically blue, silk cloths called a khadag. After the ceremony, the extended family eats sheep’s tail, mutton, rice with curds, dairy products, and buuz. It is also typical to drink airag and exchange gifts. Before the day, many Mongols had to clean their houses.
The food at Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year, is a reason to go. In Mongolia, Tsagaan Sar is a holiday that many people enjoy. The food and drinks at Tsagaan Sar are purposely white to show that the event is about cleansing and shining light into the darkness. A lot of the traditional dairy foods that are served at the Tsagaan Sar feast are dairy products.
Tea with milk:
People in Mongolia drink salted milk tea all the time, day or night, and in any weather. It is usually brought in a silver bowl to start the Tsagaan Sar feast, and it is the first gift that people give each other when they visit Mongolian homes.
Fruits: berries
There might have been a second meal at the event. It was called berries and was made with steamed rice, raisins, sugar, and yak butter. People are told to take two or three spoonfuls of the beaks and drink milk tea with them for a delicious mixture.
The Tavgyn Idea:
In the middle of the feast table is Tavgyn Idee, a group of long, thick pastries organized in odd numbers and filled with sweets and dairy. Ul Boov, or “Sole Cake,” is the main pastry. Its name comes from the shape of a shoe. The fact that the layers of Sole Cakes are odd numbers shows how life is like a cycle, with happiness and pain going hand in hand. The first layer stands for happiness. It goes from sadness to ecstasy and back to happiness again and again. It depends on how many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren a family has, as well as how old the oldest person in the family is. For instance, an 80-year-old person might be able to stack seven steps higher.
What is the famous festival in Mongolia?
Naadam
Naadam is a national festival celebrated every year from 11 to 13 July across Mongolia that focuses on three traditional games: horseracing, wrestling and archery. Mongolian Naadam is inseparably connected to the nomadic civilization of the Mongols, who have long practiced pastoralism on Central Asia’s vast steppe.
Mongolia celebrates Naadam every year on July 11 and 13. It is a famous national event that includes horse racing, archery, and wrestling. The Mongols, who spent a long time living as nomads on the vast steppes of Central Asia, are thought to be the first people to do this. Aside from sports events, Naadam also supports different parts of Mongolian culture.
The Morin khuur fiddle, long songs, Khoomei overtone singing, Bie byeline dance, craftsmanship, oral customs, and performing arts are just a few of the cultural expressions that can be seen and heard in Naadam. People wear strange clothes, costumes, and sports gear to the event, which follows strange routines and traditions. In Mongolia, athletes are held in high regard, and winners are given names to show how great they are. Poems and formal praise songs are written just for the competitors, giving sportsmanship a cultural meaning.
By inviting and pushing everyone to take part, Naadam is a celebration that brings people together and makes them feel like they belong. Three classic games have a lot to do with Mongol culture and life: archery, wrestling, and horse racing. Archery and wrestling used to be taught at home by family members, but recently, more organized training programs have come out for these sports. The ceremonies and practices of Naadam include an environmental aspect that stresses how important it is to protect nature and the environment.
What type of instrument did the Mongols invent?
Perhaps the most iconic Mongolian instrument is the Morin Khuur or Horse Headed fiddle. This two-stringed instrument has thick and thin strings made of 365 horse tail hairs, symbolizing the number of days in a year. According to legend, the Morin Khuur originated from the relationship between man and horse.
The morin khuur is a one-of-a-kind traditional Mongolian string instrument. It has a long neck with a carved horse head and two tuning pegs in the shape of ears. Morin khuur, which means “horse fiddle” in Urdu, comes from the story of how it was made and the unique shape of the instrument. The people who made this instrument got the idea from stories that show horses that are loved are still respected after they die. The instrument is said to sound like a horse neighing. There is a link between some of these stories from the 1300s and Mongolia’s horse worship.
The two strings of the morin khuur are usually made of horsehair, which is also used to make bow strings. The instrument is useful in everyday life and has cultural significance as well. Storytelling, folk dances, and even horseback rides are all done on it. The morin khuur has a long and interesting cultural history. It is considered Mongolia’s national instrument and is taught at three schools.
The morin khuur makes a unique, emotional sound when it is played that brings to mind Mongolia’s rich cultural history. The player lays their neck against their arm and puts their body between their legs.
Mongolia is one of the least populated countries, with only 3 million people living in an area of 1.5 million km². Most of these people live in Ulaanbaatar, which is the capital city, but about 145,311 herder households, or 285,691 people, still live in tents.
People who live this way must be flexible and mobile because they have to move around with their animals across huge steppes, looking for the best places to graze and drink (Yembuu, 2016). Even though things have changed since then, Tsagaan Sar is still a time to celebrate the beginning of a new year after a hard winter.Â
It’s a chance to finish up unfinished business and say goodbye to the coming year. In the evening before Tsagaan Sar, some certain rules and customs must be followed to keep this tradition alive.
