Family, Ritual, Tsagaan Sar

A little like those eternal Christmas Day planning to be at Mum at 12, Uncle Ben at 2, can we fit in Aunty Jane?

Except this seems to have more grace,

more ritual

less ‘resentment’

(although, of course I have no idea of the conversations that may occur behind the scenes 😆)

We were so privileged to be included in this

Treated like family

Welcomed like friends.

We visited several sets of family in the afternoon.

Always with the same form of greeting;

Greetings of the elders.

A ritualized form of salutation.

Tables were laden with food;

again all traditional for the Tsagaan Sar

Gifts were given and received,

noticeably given by the hosts and received by the guests.

Even we were given gifts –

Mine a hand made small camel

We drank salted cows milk; camel milk, sheep milk, vodka, whisky

and who knows what else.

We ate horse meat dumplings, beef dumplings, mutton dumplings,

and who knows what else.

We were greeted, welcomed, ‘watered’ and fed at each home we visited.

And spent time with my first Mongolian horse.
None have names, few have class, all are amazing.

There was so much pride in their culture

and traditions.

It was a privilege to to see.

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the ‘fun’

which it was.

As were some of the kids; with so much joy and laughter…..

Moments of sheer joy

There was so much to absorb and experience.

And exhausted, satiated, overwhelmed, content,

we loaded ourselves into our vehicle,

were serenaded (after a fashion)

and wearily went ‘home’

My head was spinning;

I needed to process what I had experienced;

I jumped out the vehicle and wandered home

via a delicious coffee and quiet read.

Time out.

A remarkable day.