During the past couple of weeks, the ladies here in the office have been talking about all of the house cleaning and preparation they have been doing. The home has to be extremely clean and the celebration is primarily centered around Mongolian food and lots of it with some presents for everyone. I was lucky enough to be invited to two traditional Mongolian homes for Tsagaan Sar.
The top picture is a picture of Batbaatar Gurbazar and his mother. She was the oldest member of the family and only about ten to fifteen years younger then I am, so the celebration centered around her home and she sat at the head of the table.
Then there is the picture of part of the family gathered there in the home where Batbaatar and his siblings were raised. Tsagaan Sar is a celebration of the beginning of the new year with a major focus around honoring the oldest member of the family. Genghis Khaan started the tradition, when he went to visit his mother and pay her respect and honor.
In a lower picture you see another table that is set in the same way. It is the picture at the home of the mother of another CHF employee, Tuul Tuvshinbayar. Then lower down in the blog is a picture of Tuul's husband and son and a picture of her husband slicing the sheep.
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The picture of the little girl by herself is a picture of Alice, one of Glenn's three children. Glenn and his family and Brian and his wife were present at Tuul's mother's home for the celebration. Alice is wearing her Deel, the name of the traditional Mongolian dress. Usually on the street, except for folk more from the country side, people wear western dress but on Tsagaan Sar, many people were dressed in beautiful and brightly colored traditional Mongolian clothing. There is also the picture of Batbaatar's older brother and his daughter.
The Mongolian Tsagaan Sar is a terrific holiday and a great way to celebrate the New Year. There are many traditions that revolve around the celebration. I know only a few of the traditions and those only partially but I could fill the page just with the ones I know a little bit about. It is always a rich experience to be in a different culture and experience the very meaningful traditions that have been around for hundreds of years. If that is not enough to be grateful for, there is the fact that winter is officially over and it was warmer today, just for the occasion of the beginning of spring. I wonder how they say Hallelujah in Mongolian?
