When is the Tibetan New Year?

Lead: Celebrating the New Year is a day for China people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new and express their best wishes. The Spring Festival is the time for the Han people to celebrate the New Year. There are 56 ethnic minorities in China, so the national culture of each ethnic group has been preserved. Among them, the Tibetan New Year is a traditional folk activity of the Tibetan people. So, when is the Tibetan New Year? Let's take a look with Bian Xiao.

When is the Tibetan New Year?

The first day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar is the Tibetan New Year. The time difference between Tibetan New Year and Lunar New Year is 1 month, and there are generally three kinds of time differences between Tibetan New Year and Lunar New Year. On the same day, one day is a month away, and there is no rule to follow every year. Tibetan New Year is a traditional festival for Tibetan people. The Tibetan New Year begins on 1 month 1 day and ends on 15, lasting for 15 days.

The Origin of Tibetan New Year

According to legend, around BC, the "white horse" old woman calendar algorithm appeared in Tibet, which calculated the four seasons according to the rotation of the moon and the stars. Whenever spring blossoms, people gather in Yalong Bay, Sang Ya to celebrate the "Sonya Festival". According to records, Bude Gongga, the then King of Tibet, also visited the nearby holy mountain, which gradually formed a regular celebration and became the beginning of the Tibetan New Year. 1 3rd century, during the reign of sagar dynasty, 1 month1day was designated as the beginning of the new year, meaning the king's new year. Since then, the Tibetan calendar year has officially become an important traditional festival in Tibet and continues to this day.

The preparation for the New Year usually begins at the beginning of1February of the previous year. In addition to buying new year's goods, eating, drinking and having fun, every household should make a grain bucket called "cutting horses", that is, on the left and right sides of a wooden box painted with colorful patterns, stir-fried wheat grains and ghee are put in the rice cake respectively, and colorful flowers made of highland barley ears and ghee are inserted on it. We should also soak a bowl of highland barley seeds in water to make them grow an inch or two in the new year. "chariots and horses" and wheat seedlings are enshrined in the middle of the magic plan, praying for a bumper harvest in the coming year.

Near the festival, men are busy cleaning the courtyard, while women carefully make "Kasai", a kind of pasta fried with ghee, which is divided into ear-shaped, butterfly-shaped, strip-shaped, square-shaped, round and other shapes, painted with pigment and wrapped with sugar. It is not only a mysterious art decoration, but also a delicacy to entertain guests. The variety and color of "Gexi" often become the symbol of the hostess's diligence, wisdom and enthusiasm, which is particularly eye-catching in festivals.

On the 29th of the last month of the old year, people cleaned the kitchen, hung new curtains on the doors and windows, put new card mats in the house, and sprinkled a lot of white powder on the middle wall or beam of the cleaned kitchen, which was called "sub-color" and painted with the pattern of "eight treasures auspicious". In the evening, the family will eat "ancient pimples". In the evening, there will be a ceremony of "How ancient is better". On the 30th, candy and other foods were placed as offerings in front of the Buddhist shrine in the main room.

It is also necessary to draw "_" symbols and other patterns on the white mud outside the gate, and at the same time offer an offering such as "Gexi" in front of the stove to worship the kitchen god. On the first morning, after the cock crowed for the first time, housewives got up and went to a nearby water source to carry the first bucket of clean water. Each family sent people to the top of the mountain to simmer mulberry. At the same time, mulberry smoke rose in every household's mulberry stove. When housewives get home, they give the cooked "closed shop" to the sleeping family, old and young. After getting up, everyone eats "knowing the way" together. After that, the whole family put on holiday costumes and went to "bamboo chariots and horses" to celebrate the New Year.

Tibetan festivals vary from place to place. From the middle of the last January of the old year in Lhasa, people began to prepare things to eat, wear, play and use in the New Year. Tibetan calendar year is a festival created by Tibetan people in the process of labor and production, and it is the best time for relatives and friends to get together in a year. It is the slack season at the turn of winter and spring, which embodies people's joy in autumn harvest and confidence in spring ploughing, and also expresses the pursuit and yearning of hardworking and brave Tibetan people for the new year and the new year. Its content and form are full of rich ethnic and religious colors, and it is a microcosm of the whole Tibetan cultural customs.