Tibet New Year Festival(Losa Festival)
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TOPIntroduction
The Tibetan New year, known as Losar, is the most important festival in the Tibetan calendar. It is celebrated over a period of two weeks, and generally falls during the months of December and January, in the Western calendar, since it is regulated by the lunar calendar.
In 2010, Tibetan New Year takes place on 14th, February.
The Losar festival is celebrated by Tibetan peoples, and is marked by ancient ceremonies that represent the struggle between good and evil, by chanting, and by the passing of torches through the crowds. A certain amount of levity is provided by events such as the dance of the deer and the amusing battles between the King and his various ministers. The Losar festival is characterized especially by its music, dance, and a general spirit of merrymaking.
During the last two days of the old year, called Gutor in Tibetan, Tibetans begin to prepare for the New Year festival. The first day of Gutor is spent in thoroughly cleaning the house. The kitchen especially must be extra clean, because, as the place where the family's food is prepared, it must be kept free of bacteria. The chimney is also swept thoroughly clean.
On the second day of Gutor, certain special dishes are cooked in preparation for the celebrations which begin the following day, on the first day of the New Year festival. One such dish is a delicious soup served with small dumplings. The soup is made from meat, wheat, rice, vermicelli, peas, green peppers, radishes, sweet potatoes, and cheese. Inside the dumplings are placed bits of wood, paper and/or pebbles. These foretell, in the manner of "reading tea leaves", whether the future bodes well or not.
As well, religious ceremonies are held on the second day of Gutor. One visits the local monastery to worship and to deliver gifts – often gifts of food – to the monks. On a more mundane if not secular level, Tibetans also set off firecrackers and other fireworks on the second day of Gutor as a symbol of driving away any evil spirits that may be lurking about.
On New Year's Day itself, Tibetans rise early, and, after having taken a bath and gotten dressed, they proceed to the household shrine in order to pay homage to the gods in the form of offerings. These usually consist of animal and demon shapes made from a kind of dough called Torma. In addition, it is on New Year's Day that family and friends exchange gifts, much like people in the West exchange gifts on Christmas Day. Families and friends also share a hearty meal together, which usually consists of a kind of cake called Kapse, and an alcoholic beverage called Chang, which was traditionally drunk in order to keep warm.
TOPThe Origin of Losar
Losar, the Tibetan word for New Year, is composed to two characters: Lo, which means "year"; and Sar, which means "new". The celebration of Losar can be traced back to Tibet's pre-Buddhist period. At that time, Tibetans were followers of the Bon religion, and held a spiritual ceremony every winter. During the Bon celebrations, people would burn large quantities of incense on a certain day of the year (not on the lunar new year, as it was not in vogue in Tibet at that time) in order to appease local spirits, deities and protectors. When Buddhism arrived in Tibet, the older "heathen" ceremony of Bon was simply incorporated into the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, becoming the Buddhist Losar festival. The Buddhist Losar festival originated during the reign of Pude Gungyal, the ninth King of Tibet.
The Bon ceremony is said to have begun when an old woman called Belma introduced the measurement of time to Tibetans based on the moon's phases. This pre-Buddhist festival was held in autumn, when the apricot trees blossomed. It may also have coincided with what later would become the traditional farmers' festival, or the harvest festival. It was in any case during this period that the art of the cultivation of soil – or the tilling of the land and the planting of seeds , rather than just gathering seeds sown by nature's hand – was first introduced in Tibet. Religious ceremonies began thereafter to celebrate these new-found capabilities, and it may well have been the case that these celebrations led ultimately to the New Year's festival, i.e., to the Losar festival, as it is known today in Tibet.
TOPPractice
The Tibetan calendar consists of twelve lunar months, and Losar begins on the first day of the first lunar month. However, in Tibetan-Buddhist monasteries, the celebrations for Losar begin on the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month. That is the day before Losar's Eve. On that day, monasteries do a special kind of ritual in preparation for the Losar celebrations. Also on that day, a special kind of noodle called Guthuk, which is made of nine different ingredients, including dried cheese and various grains, is made.
In addition, people place various ingredients such as chilies, salt, wool, rice and coal inside dough balls, which are then handed out,. The ingredients that one finds hidden in one's dough ball are supposed to be a lighthearted comment on one's character, in the spirit of a Chinese fortune cookie. For example, if a person finds chilie in his dough, that means he is talkative; if white-colored ingredients such as salt or rice are hidden in the dough, this is taken as a good sign. If someone finds a piece of coal in his dough, in contrast, it carries the same symbolic meaning as finding coal in the Christmas stocking: it signifies that one has a "black heart".
The last day of the year is, as earlier indicated, a time to clean and prepare for the approaching New Year. Houses are thoroughly washed with soap and water, then white-washed, after which people put on their finest clothing and adornments as a part of the custom of holding a family reunion, or "reunion feast", which is similar in spirit to the Han Chinese New Year's banquet.
Traditionally, on the first day of the New Year, the housewife will get up very early, and, after cooking a pot of barley wine for the family, she will sit beside the window awaiting the sunrise. As the first ray of sunshine of the New Year touches the nearby earth, the housewife takes a bucket and heads for a nearby river, or well, to fetch the year's first bucket of water, which is seen as the most sacred, clearest water of the coming year. The family that fetches the first bucket of water from the river/the well is believed to be blessed with good luck for the coming year.
On the nearby farms, housewives cook an equal number of sheep heads as there are family members. The cooked sheep heads are then presented to the most elderly person in the family, who thereafter passes a sheep's head to each person present, using a small knife, where the hierarchical order in which the sheep heads are passed out is determined by the age of the family members - in another word, the older family members will receive a sheep head first; the youngest, last.
On the first day of the New Year, celebrations are usually restricted to the immediate family. The city's or village's streets are generally very quite on this day. The second day of Losar is the day for visiting with friends and relatives. On the third day, Tibetans in Lhasa especially visit the local monasteries, where they make offerings. Tibetan New Year usually last 15 days.
Traditional ways of celebrating Losar have changed somewhat through time. For example, fireworks is a relatively recent addition to Losar, but have grown in popularity until today they are possibly Losar's main attraction (at least among youths). These days, on the first day of New Year, good tidings ring out all across the country by means of the electronic media, and New Year celebrations are broadcast on television throughout the country.
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