2/23/2015
Tsaagan Sar. The white month holiday, which celebrates the
Lunar New Year, is Mongolia’s largest holiday. Families prepare for weeks,
making 1000s of buuz (Mongolian dumplings), ariag, potato and kimchee salads
and buying gifts for every family member. It is the costliest holiday, families
often take out loans in order to afford all the food and gifts they need.
Tsaagan Sar lasts 8 days, but the first three are the most important. The first
is spent with family, starting at 8am when they take a trip to the top of a
nearby mountain to offer milk to the gods and watch the sunrise. They then make
their way back down the mountain and being to prepare their home for the visitors
that will arrive that day. The first day is spent visiting every family member
in order of birth. The grandparents are visited first by all the family members
in the family. There are special greetings for each member depending on age and
the customary 3 shots of vodka before food is served. Once people are done
eating and all the gifts are given out, it is time to move to the next house.
Where again you take three shots and eat buuz. This last the entire day until
every house is visited in the family.
I was supposed to go to the country side with my Mongolian
friend to celebrate with her family a few days before Tsagaan Sar began, but
unfortunately I came down with a sinus infection and strep throat, so I had to
stay in my apartment and nurse myself back to a somewhat better state of
health. I am still stick, but at least no longer infectious at this point. When
I called to tell her I could not go with her, she kept telling me it was fine,
her family would not mind me being sick, they would take care of me in the
countryside. After about 30 minutes of talking on the phone, I finally was able
to get her to understand what contagious meant and that I could not go. A
couple hours later I got a phone call from her telling me she was outside of my
apartment with special buuz and airag (fermented mare’s milk). She gave me
special instructions on how to eat the food in order to become healthy again. I
was to eat the buuz with hot water, then take a nap, when I woke up, I had to
boil the airag, then drink it and go back to sleep. I should feel better in the
morning she said. I didn’t, it actually gave me an upset stomach, but I told
her it worked.
The first day of Tsaagan Sar, I spent with my site mate,
Rebecca’s hasha family (volunteers who live in gers have families that live on
the property with them for safety). We ate, drank, chatted and played various
Shagai (ankle bone) games for most of the afternoon. We then went on to my
friend Gerlee’s grandmother’s house for more food and Shagai games. We got to
her ger and the minute I saw her parents, I ran up and gave them huge hugs. I
missed my Mongolian parents and it was so nice to see there smiling faces. They
thanked me numerous times for the photo album I gave them with pictures from
all my visits to their ger in the country. I also gave the grandmother a photo
frame with a picture of her and me in it, the day she made my deel for me.
Mongolians love pictures, and most of them cannot afford cameras, so albums or
pictures are always a great gift to give them. It was so much fun celebrating
with these two families. Everyone was so happy and energetic. It definitely
boosted my spirits.
After Gerlee’s, we
went to Patrick’s hasha family’s home. His hasha father is hilarious; he kept
us entertained all night. At one point he brought out his two hunting rifles
and strapped them both around his back and paraded around the house pretending
to shoot things. He then told us our fortunes. He said this year I would have
much success. He told us that he had had 24 shots of vodka that day and at 45
buuz. 24 shots and you become a fortune teller. He then made us each take 4
four shots and eat meat fat. It is a tradition to eat chunks of fat at the
celebration. They believe animal fat helps you stay warm in the winter, so they
eat a lot of it November-March. I tried hiding the fat in my napkin, but he saw
that I did not eat it and made me sit there on his couch and eat the giant
chunk of fat. I even tried hiding it when he went to the bathroom in my purse
and he caught me. I was hoping he was not offended, luckily he was not. I
cannot stand fat, especially baseball size chunks, so I quickly tried
swallowing as much of it as I could
before I finally gave up and shoved the rest in the top of my boot, which
luckily he did not see and I was able to throw it away while we walked home.
The second day of Tsaagan Sar is for visiting friends. This
means going to your coworkers homes. All of my coworkers were in the
countryside or different providences visiting their families, so they were not
in town to visit. Last year, I went and visited them all during my lunch breaks
the week they returned for work. So I had the day off to relax, luckily,
because the weather was horrible and it would have been awful having to walk
from house to house in it.
The third day is for visiting more friends. Rebecca and I
went to one of her teacher’s houses and ate buuz with her and her daughters.
The teacher than had to leave and told us to stay and play Shagai with her
young daughters. So we did and it was a lot of fun. Since their mother is an
English teacher, they know pretty good English and we spent the afternoon
joking around and playing Shagai. I absolutely love playing Shagai games and
cannot wait to bring them back to America with me.
Today, while I waited at the bank to pay my utility bills I
was able to observe all the old men and women in their beautiful deels greeting
all the friends in the bank. They all greeted one another with the special
Tsgaan Sar arm movements and every man took out his carefully wrapped snuff
bottle and exchanged it with the other old men. They each take turns snuffing a
little tobacco from each. It was so cool. It is time like that when I realize
what a really cool country I live in with such rich culture. Here are these old
men in their new deels passing each other snuff bottles and chatting inside the
bank. One of those moments that remind me how lucky I am to be experiencing
Mongolia and living as one of its people.
After a nice week off from work, I had to go in this
morning. But I was ushered into the Health Department by my director’s
assistant and up to my director’s office to drink wine and ariag with her at
1030am. Mornings spent drinking wine can only lead to a great rest of the day.
2/24/2015
Last night I went to my directors home to celebrate Tsaagan
Sar. We had a girls’ night, me, my director and her daughter. It was a lot of
fun. We watch Korean Soap Operas, ate way too many buuz and played cards. My
director is one of the most amazing people I have ever known. She is brilliant.
It is so great to see strong women running organizations, especially
governmental ones; it is usually men with all the power here.
I love spending time
with her and learning about her life. Every morning for the past month,
Mon-Fri, at 10am we have coffee together and practice speaking English. She
travels to France and Korea a lot for work and wants to improve her English so
that she no longer has to rely on a translator when she goes out to dinner with
foreign doctors on these trips. So I have been just teaching her common
statements and conversational English. Today we practiced inviting someone over
for dinner and asking different questions like “are you thirsty/hungry? What
would you like to eat/drink?”. I always try to make up fake conversations to
practice and act out. She really enjoys acting out the scenarios and then we
chat about her schedule for the day. It is helpful for me, because now I
finally know what goes on each day in the Health Department (finally, after two
years I have figured it out).
2/27/2014
Today, my site mates and I visited the local monastery in
town. There was a special monk who would be praying over the people who visited
the monastery that day. My friend Gerlee took us to show us what to do when we
entered the monastery. There were so many people in the monastery on line
waiting to see the monks. It was the last day of Tsaagan Sar and the luckiest
day to have your yearly fortune read. Based on your birth year, the monk say
special prayers for you and then they read from one of their special books,
which tells you what type of year you will have and what kind of activities you
should do to maximize your happiness and luck in the upcoming year. The line
was so long, that Gerlee is going to take us back to the monastery next week to
speak with the monks. But while we were in the monastery, we go to participate in
the chants, spin the prayer wheels and give offerings to the new god of the
year. The monastery is so colorful and filled with beautiful statues and
paintings. The monastery smelled of the incense being burned as the monks read
the books to the people. They make special symbols with the powdered incense
depending on your birth year as well. That evening, we took a trip to Bulgan
Mountain to light candles and make wishes for the New Year.
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