It is the Mongolians celebration of the Lunar New Year.
Mongolians believe that white symbolizes happiness, purity, and abundance of milk products.
The date of Tsagaan Sar, depending on the phases of the moon, falls anywhere between the end of January and early March.
The calendar uses a 12 base system, with a century consisting of 12 years, and the year of 12 months.
Each year bears the name of an animal (mouse, cow, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, and pig),
and Mongolians are known to judge the coming year by its animal.
This year is the year of the horse.
A lot of work goes into preparing for Tsagaan Sar.
The women (and men) prepare and freeze (outside) lots of buuz (as many as a 1000) for this feast.
We took some pictures of the Bayanzurkh Zakh
where we normally shop two days before Tsagaan Sar.
Yes, it was a crazy place to be.
Ta, Saikhan Shinelj baina uu? (Are you having a good white month?)
is the formal greeting when you enter someone's home.
We have been blessed to have been invited to two family's homes on Friday
and three more on Saturday.
The first family we visited was the family of Batjargal
who is the first counselor of the Sukhbaatar Branch.
He has been a member of the church for over 10 years
and is one of the stalwart priesthood holders in the Sukhbaatar Branch.
He and his wife were very giving and gracious to us.
Batjargal and Elder Faber, sorry the other Elder is new and I don't know his name.
When you enter a home during Tsagaan Sar, you greet the oldest person first,
either with "Amar bain yy" (peace) or Saikhan Shinelj bain uu?
Facing him/her, you put your hands under his/her elbows like you are holding him/her.
The older person will put his/her arms on top of yours.
It is customary to give the oldest person some new money.
At our first visit we found out the Elder Nay was older than Batjargal
and that Batjargal was the same age as Sister Nay.
Sister Nay looking over the side of meat and the ul boov centerpiece
Elder Nay looking over the same side of meat and the ul boov centerpiece.
We then visited for a while, looking at photo albums.
The Mongolians love to show off their pictures of their family
and pictures with previous missionaries.
Then the feast is served.
In Brother Batjargal's home we started with a hymn and prayer.
Mongolians love to sing the hymns and I so appreciate it.
Then they served us a warm milk that is watered down and with a little bit of salt added.
Warm milk actually tastes great on a cold day.
You then need to eat something white before you eat anything else.
They traditionally serve a little rice with raisins in it, which also is very good.
Then comes out a variety of dishes, salads, meat dishes, bread.
Also they traditionally have a large side of meat on the table probably lamb,
or sometimes it might be beef.
I made this picture large so that you could see that it was a sheep.
Notice the head in the middle and the tail on the left side.
The Mongolian's love fatty meat.
They will pay more for a sheep with lots of fat.
The mutton was pretty good, I was impressed.
Then the buuz are served.
These are like a meat dumpling
(a small ball of meat usually lamb wrapped in dough then steamed).
You can not leave until the buuz's are served.
Also there is a large tower of biscuits (cookies that are called ul boov)
in the center of the table, the older the host the taller the tower.
The tower is filled with candies and dried dairy products.
The tower is always an odd number because one level represents happiness,
the next sorrow, the next happiness etc.
You want the coming year to be full of happiness and good things.
You do not eat the tower but you can eat a few of the candies and dairy products off of the tower.
This is Brother Batjargal's wife and daughter singing hymns.
This is Brother Batjargal's 4 month old granddaughter.
She was so adorable and sharing with her smiles and laughter.
Our next visit was with Buted and Batbayer.
She is a famous Mongolian Opera singer
which recently had a chance to go to
Salt Lake City and sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Her husband is Batbayer who was the first patriarch in Mongolia.
Sitting beside them is one of her singing students which sang some wonderful Opera Songs for us.
Notice their tower of ul boov in the middle of the table!
Elder and Sister Stewart with Parliament Pujee. All are great people.
Sister Buted and her student singing together.
It was a wonderful feast as you can see from the pictures.
The Mongolian people are so generous and giving.
They invite you to your home to share this wonderful feast with them
and when it is time to leave, they give you a gift.
Most of the time, it is usually candy,
but Sister Buted was very generous to the Benson children.
Bella received a new Deel vest.
The couples were given fridge magnets and handkerchiefs.
This is Bella Benson with a granddaughter of Sister Buted.
On Saturday Morning, February 1, we visited with sister Shorai and her daughter Batsetsig
with Elder and Sister Farmer. Sister Shorai is a true Mongolian Saint.
She is a member of the Sukhbaatar Branch and faithfully attends every week.
It was literally going over the river and through the woods to get to her home.
You have to walk under the bridge of the road, on the frozen river for a ways
and then up the river bank to get to her home.
She lives quite far away from the church building,
but she is there every week.
This is her daughter Batsetseg, cooking on the coal stove.
Sister Shorai was just a gracious hostess.
Here she is cutting meat off of the bone and
putting it into warm milk to warm up the meat.
It was like an instant soup.
We asked the sweet sister how many buuz they made this year for Tsagaan Sar.
She and her daughter made
2000 buuz!
Here Elder Nay and I are drinking, Harem? the warm milk
Here we are standing on the river behind Shorai's place.
It was really white, you can not tell but it was a cold blowy, snowy day.
Just a note about being American and wearing matching deels and walking down the street.
Everyone would wave, honk their horns, stick their phone out the window
to take a picture or come up and shake our hands.
I don't know if they thought we were funny or what,
put they seemed to enjoy it.
The next visit of the day was to the stake president's grandmother, Sister Ichinkhand.
She is 91 years old and she was one of the original members of the church in Mongolia
and helped to translate the Book of Mormon into Mongolian.
Every year she and her daughter invite the Senior Missionaries over for Tsagaan Sar.
So much work, but again they are very gracious and loving.
Next in the evening we visited with our translator, Muugii and her family
along with Elder and Sister Linford and Sister England (Elder England was sick)
Again we enjoyed their hospitality and love,
We truly have been blessed to be here in Mongolia
and to feel the love and generosity of the Mongolian People.
Scripture of the week: Mosiah 2:4 And also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God, ...to keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men.
