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Tsagaan Sar, which accurately means “White Moon”, is the largest nationwide and conventional winter vacation in Mongolia celebrated for the reason that thirteenth century. Tsagaan sar is the Mongolian Lunar New 12 months Celebration and celebrated actively from the primary via third days of the primary lunar month indicating the spring be
ginning in Mongolia. In 1206, when Temuujin established the Nice Mongol Empire and proclaimed himself because the Chinggis Khaan, he ordered to celebration Tsagaan Sar in spring aiming to boost peace, kindness, and respect among the many individuals. Mongols used to have a good time the vacation by carrying all white, using white horses, consuming white meals created from dairy merchandise (dairy merchandise in Mongolia are known as “white meals”), and exchanging white presents.
From 1950 to the Sixties, Tsagaan Sar was celebrated solely within the countryside as a Herder Competition and banned within the metropolis. Later in 1988, this necessary conventional vacation re-began to be celebrated as the primary day of the Lunar New 12 months nationwide. These days it seems a family-oriented vacation that reveals respect to the aged and encourages youthful Mongolians to find out about their traditions and cultures. Moreover, it’s thought-about a vacation to cheer up herders for efficiently passing the cruel winter and a celebration for welcoming the hotter days of spring.
Tsagaan Sar permits all Mongolians to be happy with their nationwide heritage, tradition, custom, and customized. Tsagaan Sar promotes households and other people to be united, strengthens the household bond, and allows individuals to get to know their household tree.
Preparation for the Tsagaan Sar
Folks need to welcome the New 12 months and have a good time the Tsagaan Sar with an optimistic thoughts, type coronary heart, and pure soul with out darkish ideas. It’s prohibited to do, assume and say dangerous issues in the course of the vacation. Additionally, the money owed have to be repaid earlier than the New 12 months and nobody ought to argue in the course of the vacation as it’s believed that the complete 12 months finally ends up being with arguing and quarreling.
The houses, garments, and other people have to be cleaned too. Mongolians imagine that good luck comes the place there may be cleanliness. On this regard, there’s a ton of preparation work earlier than Tsagaan Sar. No less than one month earlier than the vacation, all households are busy cleansing their houses and yards, repairing the damaged family furnishings and home equipment, getting their conventional garment known as “Deel” prepared, and getting ready the particular meals which can be served in the course of the vacation. Particularly households with elders put together a giant feast desk symbolizing prosperity and fullness within the coming 12 months in addition to presents for the company. Even the preparation work includes and unites all members of the family, kinfolk, and neighbors.
Tsagaan Sar meals and drinks
Milk tea
The very first thing you’re supplied whenever you go to the Mongolian household is milk tea. It is without doubt one of the commonest scorching drinks in Mongolia and it’s usually drunk all through the day, particularly in winter. Making Mongolian tea is straightforward, you want water, tea leaves, milk, and a pinch of salt (it’s optionally available). Be aware that the water have to be boiled first with the tea leaves to verify it’s protected to drink. The milk can go from a goat, sheep, or cow. Usually, cow milk is extensively used. When all elements are mixed, the subsequent necessary step is to stir it by scooping up the milk and pouring it from a top above the pot of tea. It’s typical in Mongolia that girl of the home makes milk tea each morning and provides it first to the mom earth and father sky. Then she serves the milk tea to her husband, father, or son. Usually, the tea and the meal must be served first to the host of the household or the boys in the home.
Tsagaalga
That is the second dish it’s best to style if you find yourself visiting with a household in the course of the Tsagaan Sar. Tsagaalga is made with curd, rice, and raisin mixed with clotted cream, yellow butter, milk, flour, sugar, and salt. A very powerful ingredient of the Tsagaalga is the normal dairy product curd. The dish is believed to whiten and purify the darks.
Kheviin boov
Layers of lengthy pastries or cookies formed like shoe sole known as Ul or kheviin boov is the principle ornament of the largest festivals in Mongolia. Ul boov has patterns within the heart that are stamped with a wood sample. These pastries are stacked in an odd variety of layers upward. Every layer consists of 4 pastries making it four-sided, thus symbolizing the cardinal instructions. As a result of first layer representing happiness and the second representing struggling, the layers should all the time finish in happiness. Technically, Mongolians have a philosophy on odd digits, exemplifying a circle of life that begins with and ends in happiness.
The variety of layers depends upon the age of the aged and the social standing of the household. A middle-aged household arrange 5 layers and younger households three whereas a household with elders stacks seven or 9 layers and State heads 9. Some households use large dried curds as a substitute of pastries lately.
Uuts
Uuts is a sheep’s entire again with its fatty tail. It’s boiled two or three days earlier than the Tsagaan Sar in a giant pot filled with water with salt and left outdoors for freezing. Uuts is served on the massive feast tables together with Tsagaan Sar and wedding ceremony ceremonies. On Tsagaan Sar Eve, the host of the household minimize the primary slices of the uuts and provides it to the fireplace and earth after which to the members of the family. Throughout Tsagaan Sar, company need to style the Uuts which is often supplied and minimize by the host of the household. Each evening the uuts is saved in a cooler place or outdoors stopping it from decaying.
Airag
Fermented mare’s milk also referred to as Airag is the normal beverage of Mongolia. It’s consumed extra in summer time as a result of milking season of horses working between mid-June to September. Nonetheless, individuals freeze the airag till Tsagaan Sar and drink it. Airag is made by fermenting uncooked unpasteurized mare`s milk over hours or days, usually whereas stirring or churning by the entire household and company all through the fermentation interval. Through the fermentation, lactobacilli micro organism acidify the milk, and yeasts flip it right into a carbonated and mildly alcoholic drink. It tastes barely bitter and incorporates as much as 2 to three p.c of alcohol.
Buuz
It’s a type of dumpling which is often full of beef, mutton, onions and salt. The primary elements are flour, minced or chopped meat, onion, salt, black pepper, and cumin. As soon as the nation has a particularly chilly winter, households put together the buuz at the least a few weeks earlier than the pageant and left outdoors to freeze which makes it simpler to retailer. A household with elders makes a median of 1000 buuz or extra for the company. Alternatively, buuz making course of permits households to assemble and work collectively. Through the Tsagaan Sar, company need to eat at the least one buuz in the course of the go to or it could be thought-about impolite. Buuz is often served with salads, ketchup, and several types of pickled greens. Moreover the principle meals and drinks, the Tsagaan Sar desk has vodka, non-alcoholic drinks, fruits, nuts, candies, and a wide range of salads. Being hungry or staying on an empty abdomen in the course of the Tsagaan Sar is taken into account unacceptable in Mongolia. We are saying “Get pleasure from your meal” in Mongolian as “Saikhan Hoollooroi”.
Tsagaan Sar Eve
After midday of the Tsagaan sar eve day aka Bituun day, relying on that 12 months’s astrology, individuals put on fancy conventional garments, set the desk superbly and put the ready meals on it, supply them to the fireplace and earth, the hostess ought to begin providing tea to the proprietor of the home.
Bituun day’s meal consists of a closed head or chest of a sheep with out the chin pointed. We additionally place the shoulder blades of the sheep, 4 tall, wedged, and flaked sides on prime, with the chest going through up. If the pinnacle is closed, they put onion and garlic of their mouths to symbolize herbs and put a bunch of greens on one in all their heads. On the finish of the day, they steam the buuz and make soup rice, and ship them to their neighbors. Households put coin or one thing else within the buuz to make it a fortunate buuz and whoever finds it thought-about lucky all through the upcoming 12 months.
Since it’s the final day of the previous 12 months, this celebration bids the departing 12 months farewell. The remainder of that day is spent cleansing the household shrines within the ger, finding out any disputes or unfinished enterprise with others and performing varied charitable deeds, equivalent to feeding one’s household canine and livestock generously.
The proprietor of the home first cuts the sheep tail in 9 components (head, beak, two jaws, two ears, two sides of the loin) and provides it to the fireplace and earth and distributes it to the individuals in the home. Alcohol is served to individuals over fifty.
First day of Tsagaan Sar
On the primary day of the Tsagaan Sar, individuals need to get up earlier than dawn and placed on their new or clear garments. Then males climb to the closest hill or mountain to observe the primary dawn of the New 12 months whereas girls make milk tea at residence and supply it to earth and make her needs for one of the best of their household. Tsagaan Sar correct begins with a ritual known as ‘mur gargah’ (to set forth one’s tracks). Usually, the pinnacle of the household may have consulted a lama or used a Buddhist astrological almanac, to acquire particular directions for every member of the family based mostly on the animal-year of their start. Every individual then carries out these directions, which contain setting out from residence in a selected route, performing a ritual gesture equivalent to scattering a selected substance whereas reciting their chosen mantra between seven to 21 occasions, after which returning residence from a particular completely different route. Performing this ritual is meant to convey fortune and success within the coming 12 months and to make sure household wellbeing. Thereafter, they go to their dad and mom, grandparents, or elder kinfolk. Mongolians carry out a particular greeting known as “Zolgolt” in the course of the vacation. When greeting somebody, the youthful individual stretches each arms with palms going through upward below the older individual’s arms. The older individual places their arm on the highest whereas the youthful one’s arm goes beneath supporting the elbow of the older one. Then the youthful ought to say “Amar baina uu?” first that means “How are you?” within the respectful method. In flip, the elder responds and kisses or sniffs each cheeks of the youthful one. Every go to should begin with zolgolt to the eldest one in the home and go from oldest to the youngest on the desk.
It is not uncommon to greet the elders with cash and blue scarf known as Khadag
Afterward, company sit and change stone snuff bottles aka khuurug that comprise powdered tobacco asking one another “How was your general well being final 12 months?”. In case you are visiting herder household, it sounds nice to ask “Did your livestock move the winter fats?”. In the meantime, the company had been served milk tea first and dairy merchandise then the buuz comes alongside. Company need to style all the things supplied by the host or the principle dishes on the desk. Every go to lasts roughly half-hour if in case you have quite a few households to go to. When company go away, the host household offers presents to everybody to thank their go to. The presents are often a bar of goodies or sweet, garments, particularly socks, money, or home goods. Be aware that company need to obtain the presents with two arms. The primary 15 days are vital however Tsagaan Sar vacation lasts for 3 days formally. When individuals completed visiting their dad and mom, grandparents, and elder kinfolk, they go to their neighbors and different previous individuals’s home they know. On the seventh day of the Tsagaan Sar, individuals had been taboo to exit of their houses to go to different households and greet them. Furthermore, there are some rituals primarily linked with Buddhism. Many individuals go to temples or monasteries to listen to prayers and chants for the well-being of the New 12 months.
Dos and Don’ts of Tsagaan Sar
Following is the checklist of predominant Dos and Don’ts that it’s best to consider;
- Whenever you greet somebody, make certain to begin from the oldest individual, you’ll be able to often outline it by how individuals have seated on the desk. Be aware that you will need to greet essentially the most senior individuals first then the order of age.
- In case you are supplied a khuurgu, obtain it together with your proper hand and provides again the snuff bottle with the loosened cap indicating there isn’t a feud between you. There’s a rule that claims giving again the khuurgu closed means you’re mad or have a feud with the khuurug proprietor.
- Husband and spouse are prohibited to carry out “Zolgolt”. It’s believed to result in divorce or dangerous luck. Additionally, pregnant girls don’t do “Zolgolt” with one another as it’s believed that the intercourse of infants may very well be modified.
- Carrying one thing new on the primary day is strongly inspired. It may be something, however carrying one thing new is necessary.
Mongolians comply with an astrological calendar known as Tugs Buyant and the dates are completely different yearly. Due to this fact, our Tsagaan sar dates are often completely different from the remainder of the Asian individuals’s lunar calendars and there’s a month distinction. Primarily it happens from January to March. This 12 months, the primary day of Tsagaan Sar falls on February 21. The upcoming lunar 12 months is the “12 months of Rabbit”. If you wish to learn about Mongolian tradition deeply, Tsagaan sar is your must-see pageant. If your pals or colleagues invite you to their home throughout Tsagaan sar, think about your self fortunate and settle for the supply.
Pleased Tsagaan Sar!
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