What are the typical Tibetan festivals?

Zhuanshihui is a traditional Tibetan festival, also known as Mufo Festival, to worship mountain gods. Popular in Ganzi and Aba Tibetan areas. Every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, Shui Ye, Kowloon bathes it, so it is also called Mufo Festival. On this day every year, people from far and near in Ganzi Tibetan areas wear national costumes and gather on Happy Valley Mountain and Zheduo River. People first go to the temple to burn incense and pray, and burn paper money. Then turn to the mountain to worship the gods and pray for their blessing. After climbing the mountain, we set up a tent for a picnic and watched Tibetan opera. Singing folk songs, dancing pot and string dances, and riders also have horse racing and archery competitions. During this period, people will also hold material exchange activities and other cultural and sports activities.

Flower-picking Festival is a traditional festival for Tibetans in Apollo, Nanping County. It is held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year for two days. Legend has it that long ago, Apollo was a remote valley. People gather and hunt for a living, and make clothes out of leaves and skins. One day, a girl named Lian Zhi came from far away. She is beautiful, kind and intelligent. She taught the local people to farm, weave, sew clothes, and collect lilies to treat others. One year, on the fifth day of May, Lianzhi went up the mountain to collect flowers and was swept down the cliff by the nickel wind and died. People are very sad, so they go up the mountain to pick flowers on this day to commemorate her. Over time, the flower picking festival was formed.

Tibetan New Year is the most important festival for Tibetan people. They should put on costumes to pay New Year greetings to each other and go to the temple to worship and pray. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the major monasteries held ceremonies, and in the evening, the temples lit butter lamps. In Ta 'er Temple in Qinghai and Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, the butter sculptures made by lamas with butter are famous for their bright colors and exquisite sculptures. On April 15, it is said that religious activities were held in various places to commemorate the day when Sakyamuni became a Buddha and Princess Wencheng entered Tibet. In July, the harvest of grain is in sight, and farmers are walking around the fields with scrolls. This is called Guowang Festival, wishing the harvest that year and the Tibetan New Year.

Tibetans call the New Year "Lotha". In the ancient Tibetan calendar, the maturity or harvest of wheat was the beginning of a year, especially in summer and autumn. According to records, before 100 BC, Tibetans had their own calendars, and the days, months and years were calculated according to the moon's profit and loss. Hundreds of years later, Catholics (the primitive religion in Tibet) were able to accurately calculate the time to return to the sun from the winter solstice, and took it as the beginning of the year, forming festivals and various ceremonies. In the 7th century A.D., two princesses, Wencheng and Jincheng, entered Tibet to marry and form an alliance, bringing the calendar of the mainland. Since then, the Tibetan ancient calendar has been combined with the Han calendar and Indian calendar, forming a unique five-element calendar in heavenly stems and earthly branches in the Yuan Dynasty. Around the 1 3rd century, the Sakya Dynasty of the Yuan Dynasty designated the 1 month1day of the Tibetan calendar as the beginning of the New Year, which has been used ever since.

There are many Tibetan festivals, among which the Tibetan New Year is the biggest and has national significance. Tibetan New Year is equivalent to the Spring Festival of Han nationality, and it is the biggest festival in a year. Since mid-December in the Tibetan calendar, people have prepared food, clothing and daily necessities for the New Year. Thousands of farmers and herdsmen flocked to Lhasa to buy all kinds of new year's goods. This is the busiest season in Lhasa.

Tibetan calendar1February 29th is the Tibetan New Year. In the evening, every family should get together to eat "cereal" (dough and meat porridge) to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, thus achieving peace and happiness. After eating nine "ancient gifts" in laughter, the family held torches and set off firecrackers, shouting "Come out" and walked to the crossroads to pray for good luck in the coming year.