Tibet Group Tours – Tibetan New Year Eve and Tibetan New Year

If you meet Tibetan New Year during your Tibet group tour, you can celebrate the festival with Tibetan people together. Tibettour.com offers you some knowledge of Tibetan New Year Eve and Tibetan New Year.

Before the New Year Eve

To celebrate Tibetan New Year, Tibetan people would prepare for it from the early December. They prepare all kinds of special purchases, such as food, clothes and things for decorating and playing. Before one or two days of the Tibetan New Year Eve, every family would make a general cleaning of the houses. Fix New Year pictures on the doors and walls. Before the New Year Eve night, they would use dry flour to scatter on the surface on the middle of the wall in the cook house. And draw a sign “?”, which symbolizes luck.

On the New Year Eve

On the New Year Eve, people eat “Gutu”, which is made of flour to expel the evil spirit. When making the “Gutu”, the housewives will add something into them to test the family members’ fortune in the next year. For instance, people who eat the one which contains a stone, it means in the coming year, he will be hard-hearted; wood charcoal means black-hearted and cruel; wool means soft-hearted; ceramic chip means lazy; hot pepper means speak cruel but kind-hearted; meet means respecting the old and care the young; cow dung means good luck, etc. It always cause laugh when people spit out the things. After eating the “Gutu”, people will hold the ceremony of expel the evil spirit. They will pour the rest of the “Gutu” into a stean, inside which there is a ghost made with flour. They will say something when pouring, like “ the rest are for you.”

On the New Year

On the morning of the New Year, the host of the family will put up new Prayer flags on the top of the house. The pray the in the new year, they will get a good harvest and be good fortune as they wish. The prayer flags are connected by cloths of five different colors, blue, white, red, green and yellow, which present blue sky, white cloud, red fire, green water and yellow earth. Scriptures are printed on the cloths. Generally, they hang the prayer flag on the branches first and then stick the branches on the top of the roof. Then they will present highland barley wine, fruits, etc on the top of the roof, burning the vanilla, singing and dancing for the wish of a good lucky new year. Next, they will put the offerings on the niche for a statue of the Buddha. The housewife then get the first clean water from the well or spring. The whole family will use the clean water to wash and the livestock will drink the water. After all family members seated orderly, the mother will handle the lucky twin-bucket and bless to the families. everyone will get some Zanba and throw it onto the sky, then eat and pray. After that, the whole family get together and enjoy a great meal.