“Tsagaan Sar” or the “White Month” celebration is the Lunar New Year for the Mongols according to their centuries old lunar astrology. The Mongols celebrate passing the harsh winter in good health, and heartily welcome the spring at Tsagaan Sar. Tsagaan Sar is considered as the beginning of spring. Moreover, the Tsagaan Sar is a big family celebration as everyone visits their elders to greet and wish well for the coming year. They also exchange gifts and there’s a lot of festive food (delicious meat dumplings!) & drinks, of course.
In the city the first 3 days of Tsagaan Sar is a holiday, though it extends as long as 15 days for nomads in the countryside, and after Day 15 the new year is no longer new, and everyone stops visits and festivities and goes back to the normal, ever busy lifestyle.
The Lunar New Year’s also widely celebrated in other Asian countries around the same time (the dates rarely differ) as Lunar calendar is commonly used in Buddhism. For this year, it’s the year of Monkey coming (the 9th zodiac animal of the 12 Lunar calendar zodiac animals), and the New Year’s Eve is on 8 February 2016.
Don’t just hibernate at home at Tsagaan Sar – come out and celebrate this beautiful age-old celebration and experience the Mongol culture, hospitality and traditions this year! Mongolian Secret History camp organises an annual event during the Tsagaan Sar to give expats and visitors alike the opportunity to experience this beautiful celebration just like locals. The program they sent to us is below:
08 February 2016. LUNAR NEW YEAR EVE
- Arrive at Mongolian Secret History tourist complex
- Coffee break
- A Trip around the complex that includes a visit the Ger library to learn about nomadic literature along with its’ heritage and culture; and a visit to the statue of shaman called “Tev Tenger”, to be introduced with fascinating customs of ancient shamanism, treated by Mongolian traditional drink and skiing.
- Lunch
- Learn traditional knucklebone games and participate in competitions of:
- “Colored turtle” game – sheep or goat knuckle bones arranged into a shapre of a Turtle.
- “Horse racing” game by knuckle bone
- “Knuckle bone snatch” game
- “Knuckle bone flicking” game
- Afterwards, visit a nomadic herder’s family to take a part in preparing traditional food and enjoy local culture for the event of “Lunar New year Eve”
- Dinner
- Traditional music concert
- Mongolian traditional dress show
“Tsagaan Sar” or the “White Month” celebration is the Lunar New Year for the Mongols according to their centuries old lunar astrology. The Mongols celebrate passing the harsh winter in good health, and heartily welcome the spring at Tsagaan Sar. Tsagaan Sar is considered as the beginning of spring. Moreover, the Tsagaan Sar is a big family celebration as everyone visits their elders to greet and wish well for the coming year. They also exchange gifts and there’s a lot of festive food (delicious meat dumplings!) & drinks, of course.
In the city the first 3 days of Tsagaan Sar is a holiday, though it extends as long as 15 days for nomads in the countryside, and after Day 15 the new year is no longer new, and everyone stops visits and festivities and goes back to the normal, ever busy lifestyle.
The Lunar New Year’s also widely celebrated in other Asian countries around the same time (the dates rarely differ) as Lunar calendar is commonly used in Buddhism. For this year, it’s the year of Monkey coming (the 9th zodiac animal of the 12 Lunar calendar zodiac animals), and the New Year’s Eve is on 8 February 2016.
Don’t just hibernate at home at Tsagaan Sar – come out and celebrate this beautiful age-old celebration and experience the Mongol culture, hospitality and traditions this year! Mongolian Secret History camp organises an annual event during the Tsagaan Sar to give expats and visitors alike the opportunity to experience this beautiful celebration just like locals. The program they sent to us is below:
08 February 2016. LUNAR NEW YEAR EVE
- Arrive at Mongolian Secret History tourist complex
- Coffee break
- A Trip around the complex that includes a visit the Ger library to learn about nomadic literature along with its’ heritage and culture; and a visit to the statue of shaman called “Tev Tenger”, to be introduced with fascinating customs of ancient shamanism, treated by Mongolian traditional drink and skiing.
- Lunch
- Learn traditional knucklebone games and participate in competitions of:
- “Colored turtle” game – sheep or goat knuckle bones arranged into a shapre of a Turtle.
- “Horse racing” game by knuckle bone
- “Knuckle bone snatch” game
- “Knuckle bone flicking” game
- Afterwards, visit a nomadic herder’s family to take a part in preparing traditional food and enjoy local culture for the event of “Lunar New year Eve”
- Dinner
- Traditional music concert
- Mongolian traditional dress show
Prepared only for GoGo Travel by Zola