Festival · Winter · Lunar New Year, February

Tsagaan Sar, the White Month

Tsagaan Sar is the Mongolian lunar new year, and the country celebrates it at home. For three days families visit each other in order of age, the eldest first, and every ger has a table stacked with a tower of biscuits, a whole sheep's back and hundreds of steamed dumplings. You greet an elder by placing your forearms under theirs and saying amar baina uu. Then you eat. Then you go to the next ger and eat again.

There is no ticket to this. You can only be invited, and that is what we arrange: a family in the countryside who will treat you as one of the visiting relatives, with a guide who makes sure you get the greetings right and the snuff bottle the right way round.

It is winter, it is quiet, and it is the most intimate week in the Mongolian year. We keep the group to one party and we ask you to bring a small gift, which we will help you choose.

Highlights

Bituun, the eve: the family's last meal of the old year, and the clearing of debts
New Year's morning: the first steps in the lucky direction, and the greeting of the eldest
The table: the biscuit tower, the sheep's back, buuz by the hundred
Visiting the neighbours' gers, as a family member would
Deel fitting in the city before you go, so you arrive dressed right
A day in the snow with the horses, and airag warmed by the stove

The shape of the days

A starting point. We build the rest of the week around the festival days and your party.

Day 1: Ulaanbaatar

Arrive, a deel fitting, and a briefing on the greetings and the customs over dinner.

Day 2: To the family

Drive into the countryside, settle into the guest ger, help fold buuz for tomorrow.

Day 3: Bituun

The eve, the family meal, stories late into the night.

Days 4 and 5: The White Month

Greetings at dawn, the visits, the horses, the neighbours. More buuz.

Day 6: Back to the city

A slow drive back, a last dinner, and a much better understanding of Mongolia.

Practical

When: the lunar new year, late January to late February, three days
Where: with a herder family in Tuv or Arkhangai province
Book by: November; only a few families host and we do not overload them
Weather: minus twenty to minus thirty; full winter kit provided
Suits: adults and families with children over six who like people more than sights