Tsagaan Sar (White Moon)

Tsagaan Sar or White Month is one of Mongolia's two major and long-awaited holidays, the other being Naadam in July. For Mongols, Tsagaan Sar is not only an ancient holiday marking the end of winter and the beginning of a new year's cycle, but is also a time for unification and reinforcing social bonds. Preparations for the festive start well ahead of time. Several families usually gather in the eldest man's ger ( traditional dwelling), where the holiday will take place. Since the holiday means all relatives, neighbors, friends and guests will be treated to a lavish meal, women make more than a thousand buuz and dumplings. Ready dumplings are lined on wooden plates and put outside. The next day, the frozen buuz are ready to be steamed. Families all across the country stock-up on food, dairy, mild milk vodka and other specialties for the occasion.


The day before Tsagaan Sar is called Bituun, the name of the lunar phase of dark moon. The lunar phases are Bituun (dark moon), Shined (new crescent moon), Tergel (full moon), and Huuchid (waxing moon). On the Bituun day, people thoroughly clean around home, herders also clean the livestock barns and shades, to meet the New Year fresh. The Bituun ceremony also includes burning candles to symbolize enlightenment of the samsara and all sentient beings and putting 3 pieces of ice at the doorway so that the horse of the deity Palden Lhamo (Buddist God) could drink as the deity is believed to visit every household on this day. In the evening, families gather together--immediate family usually, in contrast to the large feast gatherings of White Moon day--and see out the old year eating dairy products and buuz. Traditionally, Mongolians settle all issues and repay all debts from the old year by this day.

                 Spread

 We wear traditional clothes

Making the Buuz

Naadam Festival

National event date: 11-13 July, 2012

The Naadam Festival is the most important and biggest event and holiday of Mongolians. This Nomads' Olympic event includes sport competitions of Wrestling, Horse racing and Archery as called "Eriin Gurvan Naadam-three manly games".

The main festival is held in the capital Ulaanbaatar, although other provinces and soums across Mongolia have their own, smaller scale Naadam celebrations.

It begins with an elaborately produced Opening Ceremony featuring dancers, athletes, horseriders and musicians. After the ceremony, the competitions begin. Despite the name, women participate in the archery and horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling. Another competition of traditional ankle bone shooting became now one of the most interesting parts of the festival.

Wrestling

 512 or 1024 wrestlers meet in a single-elimination tournament that lasts nine or ten rounds. Mongolian traditional wrestling is an untimed competition in which wrestlers lose if they touch the ground. Wrestlers wear two-piece costumes consisting of a tight shoulder vest (zodog) and shorts (shuudag). Each wrestler has a second called a zasuul. The zasuul sings a song of praise for the winning wrestler. The champion who won first time is called arslan, "lion".

Horse racing

Mongolian horse racing as featured in Naadam is a cross-country event, with races 15-30 km long. The riders are children, with the oldest being 10 years old and the youngest only 4. After the races, the top five horses in each class earn the title of "airgiin tav" and the top three are given gold, silver, and bronze medals.

Archery

360 targets are put up for the archery competition. In this competition both men and women participate; men fire 40 arrows from 75 meters away while women fire 20 arrows from 60 meters away. The winners of the contest are granted the titles of "National marksman" and "National markswoman".

Warriors

Shaman

Wrestler

Tsam dance

Archers

Dancers

                                                                                                        Photos by Studio3

National anthem of Mongolia

	Transliteration	English translation
	Darkhan manai tusgaar uls Dayar Mongolyn ariun golomt Dalai ikh deedsiin gegeen üils Dandaa enkhjij, üürd mönkhöjnö Khamag delkhiin shudarga ulstai Khamtran negdsen evee bekhjüülj Khatan zorig, bukhii l chadlaaraa Khairtai Mongol ornoo manduulya Öndör töriin mini suld iveej Örgön tümnii mini zaya tüshij Ündes yazguur, khel soyoloo Üriin ürdee övlön badraaya Erelkheg Mongolyn zoltoi arduud Erkh chölöö jargalyg edlev Jargalyn tülkhüür, khögjliin tulguur Javkhlant manai oron mandtugai	Our unwavering independent nation All Mongols' sacred ancestry All world's good deeds Always stable, forever continue With all honest nations of the world Strengthen our bonds With all our will and strength Let's develop our beloved Mongolia Our great nation's symbol blesses The peoples' fate supports Our ancestry, culture and language Let's forever cherish and prosper Bright peoples of brave Mongolia Have freedom and happiness Key to happiness, column for prosperity Our great country prosper

About Mongolia

Mongolia is a fascinating and landlocked country in East and Central Asia with a deep, diverse culture and ancient history. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 38 kilometres from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. 
Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic.


At 1,564,116 square kilometres, Mongolia is the 19th largest, sixth largest in Asia and the most sparsely populated
independent country in the world, with a population of around 2.75 million people. It is also the world's second-largest landlocked country. A vast country- nearly 3 times the size of France and more than 4 times the United Kingdom. The contains very little arable land, as much of its area is covered by arid and unproductive steppers, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south.

 ^{Approximately 30% of the population are nomadic or semi-nomadic. The predominant religion in Mongolia is Tibetan Buddhism, and the majority of the state's citizens are of the Mongol ethnicity, though Kazakhs, Tuvans, and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west.  Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic and trade regimes.}

^{Flag of Mongolia}

^{State emblem of Mongolia}

^{Capital city- Ulaanbaatar}

^{Official language - Mongolian}

^{Official script- Mongolian Cyrillic, Mongolian script}

^{Ethnic groups-  Mongol 95.35%}

                             ^{Kazakh 3.86%}

                             ^{Others 0.8%} 

^{Government - Parliamentary republic}

     ^{-President      Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj}

    -Prime Minister Sukhbaataryn Batbold

Legislature- State Great Khural

Currency - Togrog (MNT)

Time zone - (UTC +7 to +8)

Drives on the - right

Internet TLD- .mn

Calling code - 976