Losar: Tibetan New Year

http://www.buddhapia.com/tibet/newyear.h... is a web site called:THE STORY OF LOSAR .Here is detailed history and background on the Tibetan New Year.

The Tibetan New Year begins on February 24 this year and lasts for about one week. This is the Tibetan Year of the Iron Snake. Let me share with you some links and information about this event.

As with other aspects of Tibetan culture and religion, Losar is more generally known in the US than ever before. One can send Losar cards at http://www.bluemountain.com/eng3/buddhis... which is amazing to me. This card comes with classical Western music, adding to the generally mystic aspect.

At http://www.tibet-society.org.uk/losar.ht... you can obtain information about the Tibetan calendar and about ritual ceremonies associated with Losar.As in many cultures, the New Year is the time to purge oneself and one's home of accumulated negativity of the old year.

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/eng... gives details of Losar celebrations in Nepal. Traditional alcoholic beverages are part of the scene. The alcoholic drinks consists of two different varieties, one is Chhang which is like beer, but sometimes can be sweet,is a Tibetan home made brew; the other is rakshi, a Nepalese tradition, which is pure liquor and gives a good kick.

http://www.fathertimes.net/tibetannewyea... is a web site about New Year's traditions which gives an abbreviated version of information to be found in the web sites already listed, especially The Story of Losar.

http://205.253.75.10/oldarticles/asian/a... I quote the information about gutuk (traditional New Year's soup) because it has been mentioned in almost all the web sites cited and because it is so distinctively Tibetan:

On the night of the dark moon, new year's eve, the family gathers around a steaming hot dumpling soup called gutuk, which literally means ninth soup. Everything must be nine. There must be at least nine ingredients and everyone must eat at least nine bowls. Some of the dumplings have surprises wrapped into them. As the meal begins, each person opens one of these special dumplings. The object one finds will indicate, much like a fortune cookie, that person's personality. According to Rinjing Dorje's Food in Tibetan Life (Prospect Books, London, 1985), if one finds salt, that is a good sign and means that one is all right; the one who finds wool is very lazy; coal indicates maliciousness; chili points out the one who is rough spoken; a white stone foretells a long life; sheep pellets are a good sign and means that one is very clever; and butter says that one is very sweet and easy going. Some families also insert slips of paper with more explicit messages, making the dumplings true fortune cookies.