Tsagaan Sar (White Month)

For more than 2.000 years Mongols have been celebrating Tsagaan Sar, literally the White month, to mark the end of Winter and the beginning of Spring. Tsagaan Sar is lunar new year celebration and the biggest holiday for the families. Also people greet each other by saying "Amar mend uu?" or "Amar bainuu?", a very formal greeting which one says to one's elders. Mongolians also visit friends and family on this day and exchange gifts. A typical Mongolian family will meet in the home dwelling of the eldest in the family. Many people will be dressed in full garment of national Mongolian costumes. When greeting their elders during the White Moon festival, Mongolians grasp them by their elbows to show support for them. The eldest receives greetings from each member of the family except for his/her spouse. During the greeting ceremony, family members hold long pieces of colored cloth called khadag. After the ceremony, the extended family eats rice with curds, dairy products and buuz and drinks airag. Tsagaan Sar is a lavish feast, requiring preparation days in advance, as the women make large quantities of buuz and freeze them to save for the holiday.

During Mongolia's Communist period, the government banned Tsagaan Sar and tried to replace it with a holiday called "Collective Herder's Day", but the holiday was practiced again after Mongolia's transition to democracy in 1990.