Mongolian Lunar New Year of the Dragon- Tsagaan Sar 2024

By namsraihenderson Comment Closed
This year, Mongolia's New Year festival, Tsagaan Sar (White Month) is celebrated on Saturday 10 February. Each New Year in a sixty-year cycle has a different name; the new year is called ‘Modon Luu Jil’, that is, 'Year of the Wood Dragon’. The start of the new year is calculated with the lunar calendar, and so it falls on a different date every time, generally at the end of January or in February. This festival is as important and popular as Christmas in Western countries. It is a national holiday when extended families gather to pay mutual respects.   According to historical tradition, this festival originated at the time of Chinggis Khaan. It is recorded that in 1207, on the first morning of the ‘Ulaagchin Tuulai Jil’ (year of the Red Hare), Chinggis began the day early by praying to the Eternal Blue Sky and his own holy mountain. He made offerings to his ancestors and then went to pay his respects...
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How the Mongolian language belies the myth that the nation’s nomads are rootless drifters. By Enkhee Namsrai

By namsraihenderson Comment Closed
At Home in Mongolian This article was first published in The Linguist 62/3 in September 2023.https://www.ciol.org.uk/sites/default/files/TheLinguist-Autumn23.pdf Over thirty years have passed since Mongolia opened up to the free world, but its national culture and language remain comparatively unknown. Many people still picture Mongolia as a vast expanse of grassy steppe across which nomadic herders wander at will in search of better grazing. This romantic notion poses challenges to linguists and others keen to correct embedded cultural misconceptions. Mongolia is in fact the 19th largest country by area in the world.  About 40% of its 3.4 million total population are herders. Many of the remainder live in the capital. To provide insights to the culture, I would like to take you on a journey through the key cultural concepts ‘dwelling place’ and ‘home’ starting with my favourite poem, ‘Bi Mongol Hun’ (‘I am a Mongol’) by Ch. Chimed. The first verse, in my translation reads: “I, born in a herdsman’s ger (yurt)   From which dried-dung smoke...
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