In the end of February, Mongolia celebrated the Lunar New
Year (Tsagaan Sar). This holiday is one of the biggest traditional holidays in
Mongolia. During this time, families celebrate by greeting each other in the
New Year and eating a lot of dumplings (buuz). The holiday is like a week-long
Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration thrown together. To an outsider who
doesn’t have to prepare the buuz or host guests, this holiday is awesome! Sally
and I were invited to a number of our coworkers’ and friends’ homes where we
were fed, toasted with vodka, and given gifts. For more information regarding
the traditions of Tsagaan Sar and what they mean consult last year’s post
titled Цагаан Сар, for now let me give you the week’s tally. Sally and I visited
8 homes over the course of four days. We drank between 3-5 shots of vodka at
each home. (This is actually more
moderate than last year.) My grand total was 70 buuz with one particular
painful day of 28 buuz.
When we asked people if Tsagaan Sar was their favorite
holiday the answer was almost always no if they were a woman, and only
sometimes yes for men. The reason is because, like Thanksgiving, Tsagaan Sar is
a lot of work. Families spend weeks preparing for the holiday. Sometimes
families pre-make as many as two thousand buuz. During the holiday when guests come to a home,
men usually are responsible for entertaining the guests while women prepare the
food.
At the heart of this celebration is respect for elders.
Older couples are visited by their children and are constantly paid respect.
Reverence toward age is valued.
Tsagaan Sar is also exceedingly expensive. Families can
sometimes spend as much as a quarter of their yearly income on this holiday. In
addition to buuz, families will have a large rack of meat that is left on the
table during the celebrations. Older families use the chest plate of a cow.
Younger families use the back of a sheep. As I sampled the meat at each house,
I found myself sympathetic for the sheer number of livestock that went into
this national celebration, but thankfully none of the meat goes to waste.
Tsagaan Sar directly translates into white moon or month,
but this year’s Tsagaan Sar also ushered in Mongolian Spring. Temperatures
throughout the month of March have risen to the thirties, and all of the snow
has melted in the city. With the slight rise of temperatures, I decided to take
up running on a dirt track behind Sally’s school. When I started I was still
dealing with temperatures around zero degrees Fahrenheit, but it is not so bad
now.
Spring also brings plenty of daydreams about returning to
the states. Sally and I are constantly imagining what it will be like to return
to America: the warmth, the food, the political climate. I was recently buying
a loaf of bread at a small store near our home. As I selected a loaf of
hardened bread off of the rack, I suddenly found myself picturing the bread
aisle of a supermarket in America. For a moment the vast number of choices I
might have overwhelmed me and I imagined myself just freezing in an American
store unable to handle the shock. This of course is a dramatization of the
mind, but it illustrates just one small change Sally and I have will face. For
two years, I have had one choice of un-sliced bread. Earlier in our service I
purchased a bread knife, because I figured it would pay for itself eventually
by allowing me to get just a few more slices out of each loaf. I can’t be sure,
but I’m almost positive it has.
Spring brings a
variety of new vegetables to Mongolia. Sally and I have been able to reliably
have spinach and cilantro. Salads have become a bit of a norm for us, so food
life is good. I recently even found small stocks of celery in the market.
Celery is a vegetable that I have not had since America. It was amazing!
Naturally this influx of food has led to new recipes and experiments. Here’s a
pic of last night’s spinach and cream cheese stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon. Амар Амттай байнаа!
Spring is also the time for gender holidays in Mongolia.
Last weekend, Mongolia celebrated International Women’s Day. Men throughout
Mongolia were supposed to take on the household responsibilities and cook their
wives meals so they could have a day to relax. Since most of the social life
revolves around family or work, the various workplaces in the city did special
things for their female employees. My school sent the female teachers to a
lecture, followed by dinner, and a small party.
Tomorrow Saturday the 18th is Soldier’s day in
Mongolia, but the day has become simply Men’s day. Today my school will be
sending the men to a nice meal at our new Sky Lounge, followed by a party, the
details of which have remained secret to my sex.
Soldier’s day is a hard one for me. I don’t believe that just
because I am a man I should be lumped
together with the men and women who fight
to protect their country. I don’t think Mongolians have the same reverence
towards their armed forces that Americans have. This is simply because we have
had to use ours a lot more in recent times. To them, this holiday is less about
armed forces and more about celebrating men, almost like father’s day. Mongolia
completes its cycle of social role holidays with International Children’s day
which is celebrated in the end of May. Last year Sally and I were in UB during
this event, and a number of squares and parks were dedicated to fun activities
and amusement rides for children.
~Caleb
No comments:
Post a Comment