Tsagaan Sar is coming

The biggest Mongolian holiday of the year Tsagaan Sar is rapidly approaching. It begins on Friday, February 8 although Thursday is a day of preparation with its own name. Tsagaan Sar could be translated literally as "White Month" but is really the Mongolian lunar new year and associated celebrations.

Most Mongolians in the city will celebrate Tsagaan Sar for at least three days. In the countryside the celebration can stretch into weeks. For expatriates without Mongolian spouses Tsagaan Sar means a virtual standstill for businesses for at least three days. Since the first three days of Tsagaan Sar are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this year, most businesses should be open again on Monday. However, when Tsagaan Sar falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday it means a week with little open.

Tsagaan Sar is celebrating primarily by visiting relatives and consuming large quantities of food and alcohol. The person receiving visitors also gives gifts to those who come. In many ways it is a similar to the commercialized version of American Christmas/New Years in the U.S. which also is marked by gift-giving and food and alcohol consumption.

And also like many Americans during the Christmas season, Mongolians will go into debt to give gifts and provide food and alcohol for their guests during the celebration. I recently asked a Mongolian how he plans to pay back the money that he borrowed for Tsagaan Sar. He told me that his family will eat so much food during that celebration that they will not need to eat for a month. Of course, he was not serious but sales of everything here must fall off precipitously after Tsagaan Sar.

We too will visit Mongolian families, sometimes all six of us and other times I alone will visit. For the missionary it is a wonderful time of year to visit, meet new people, and strengthen old friendships. Because people do not need an invitation to visit, I often use the week of Tsagaan Sar to visit many people. While at their homes, I often meet new people among their friends and relatives. More than one person has come to the Savior partially because of a "chance" meeting during a Tsagaan Sar visit.

I will try to post daily updates during the first five days or so of Tsagaan Sar. If you are interested in my experience during last years celebration, click on the "Lunar New Year" tag that you see below this post. It will pull up last years blog entries about the Mongolian lunar new year.