On the eve of the New Year, every family should prepare the wooden lucky bucket called "Chema", wishing for a bumper crop and good luck in the new year; they should also prepare a lot of patterns, golden crispy Kasai (fried fruit), and use colorful shortening flowers to symbolize the prosperity of the six animals, and the yearly prosperity of the Lokokok (sheep's head), as well as all kinds of dried and fresh fruits, ghee, tea bricks, etc., and use colorful shortenings to shape the symbol of the six animals, the yearly wealth of the Lokokok. Ghee, tea bricks, etc., and stacked in front of the Buddha's niche for worship.
Tibetan December 28, 29, households cleaned the courtyard, in the center of the stove room on the wall with the surface of the "eight auspicious" pattern. Twenty-nine before dinner, each family outside the door with lime powder sprinkled painted YongZhong symbol (Chinese called "ten thousand characters") and other auspicious patterns. On New Year's Eve, the family routinely have a reunion dinner. The traditional Tibetan New Year's Eve dinner is made of beef and mutton, turnips, and noodles, etc. "Gutu". Interestingly, some of the lumps are wrapped with symbolic stones, coins, salt, chili peppers, charcoal, wool, and so on. The whole family sits around a table, each serving a bowl, and carefully eats the kudu to see who gets what. Stones indicate a strong will, chili peppers symbolize straightforwardness and spiciness, charcoal indicates that the person's heart is black, wool indicates a soft nature, peas indicate smoothness, dried peaches indicate health, ceramic tiles indicate purity, saltpeter indicates laziness, thistles imply harshness towards others, and so on. In addition to make a small head, big belly little noodle people, it appeared in whose bowl, who will be punished to learn donkey barking, pretending to bark, but also have to drink nine spoons of noodle soup. Along with this humorous and witty way of cheering, the family's New Year's Eve dinner is full of laughter, cooing and laughing, and it's a joyous occasion. After eating Gutu held a grand ceremony to send ghosts, to show that the ghosts to avoid ghosts.
The first day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, Lhasa people get up absolutely early, some even stay up all night, but can not go out. When the star rises, the east breaks dawn, heard the folding of the Ga artist shouted "La Jie Luo! (God's victory) sound, each family only open the door, began the first day of the new year's celebration. Households are folding Ga artist as a guest to welcome into, to him to offer a khada, barley wine, to him on the body of the snow-white tsampa and wishing for a good harvest of barley grains, and invited him to drink with cereals, milk residue, brown sugar, ginseng boiled hot barley wine. In recent years, at dawn on the first day of the Lunar New Year, radio stations repeatedly broadcast recordings of hymns, auspicious and joyful blessings with the radio waves in due course spread throughout the Tibetan land, people all rejoice.
"Grabbing water" is the first program on the first day of the Tibetan New Year. In the middle of the night, Tibetans in many places have to go to the river, braving the cold of minus 20 to 30 degrees, waiting for the break of dawn. It is customary to believe that whoever scoops the first bucket of water will have the best luck. Lhasa people usually do not go to the river to carry water, because the road is too far, there are a few wells in the city are considered to be connected to the rivers, lakes and seas, the well water is holy, and the residents around the early morning of the first day of the new year in a long queue to get drinking.
Early in the morning on this day, there is also a desperate need to eat as much as possible, the fuller the better, to show that you will not go hungry throughout the year.
Pilgrimage to the Showa Temple to worship Buddha Shakyamuni is also an important activity early this morning, families burned incense cedar simmering sang, take the white hatha, came to the Buddha statue before, murmuring prayers, worship.
The first day of the Tibetan calendar, generally do not visit each other. From the beginning of the second, relatives and friends visit each other to pay tribute to the New Year, lasting three to five days. Hand in hand with auspicious bucket blessing people first in the door loud blessing, inside the people hear, hurry to hold the "Chema" out, greet each other:
"Zaxi Dele Pangsongtso!" (May auspiciousness and beauty prevail!)
"Ama Pazuzu Gongkangsang!" (May the lady of the house live a long and healthy life!)
"Dondo Dewa Tulbasu!" (May there be peace and good fortune for many years to come!)
"Rangyang Sogyalchubasu!" (May we gather like this every year!)
During the New Year's greeting, the host holds the "Chema" with both hands to bless the guests, and the guests pinch a little bit of tsampa and barley in the "Chema" and throw it to the sky, then taste a little bit of it in their mouths, and congratulate them with the words: "Zaxi Dele". Zaxi Dele" (good luck). Then, the hostess carrying a copper pot draped with khata, frequently toast to the guests. During the festival, everywhere in the blessing, everywhere in the toast, everywhere in the song and dance carnival, regardless of whether they know, do not know, do not drink three bowls are not allowed to pass.
The first three days of the Tibetan calendar in honor of the "roof God", this day, people are on the roof of the house, the new streamers inserted in the roof, and then simmering burning cypress branches, throwing tsampa to the air, fluttering streamers and curling up "sangmu" sends people's Prayers to the air to pass ......
New Year's Day to wear the most beautiful clothes, wear the most precious jewelry, even if the economic conditions of the poor, but also to prepare a New Year's Eve robe, or one or two kinds of decorations. These of course come from the nature of Tibetans love beauty. But folk legend has it that wearing new clothes on New Year's Eve has the meaning of pleasing God.
On the third day of the first month, Lhasa people in groups to the east of the bottle mountain and the west of the Medicine King Mountain, inserted flags, hanging colorful streamers, sacrifices to the god of the mountain and the god of the water. Then, groups of people sing, drink, talk and laugh at the windy and sunny place.
From the fourth day of the month, the largest religious festival in Tibet is held - the Transmission of the Great Puja. This puja is a continuation of a prayer puja initiated by Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug sect, in Lhasa in 1409. During the puja, nearly 20,000 monks from the three major monasteries of Tibet concentrate in the Dazhao Temple to pray to the statue of Sakyamuni and hold examinations for the Geshe degree. In addition to the government to the monks to distribute charity, Tibet and other places of Tibetan Buddhism followers also to this light for Buddha put charity, the puja until the 15th of January to welcome the Maitreya Buddha after the end.
On the fifth day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, farmers on the outskirts of Lhasa to hold a grand open plow ceremony. People dressed in festive attire, plowing oxen on the forehead pasted with ghee pattern, horns inserted with colored flags and colorful feathers, oxen on the yoke draped with shells and turquoise satin, the tail tied with colorful ribbons, just like a "flamboyant" look. Before plowing, farmers also carry out a white stone from home, that is last year from the farmland back to the collection of good, respectfully re-installed in the center of the farmland, known as "Ama Sedo", meaning "gold stone mother", is the goddess of the protection of crops. Farmers simmer mulberry smoke in the field, put up prayer flags, and drive their oxen to plow five rows around the white stone. Each row is sprinkled with one type of crop, such as peas, barley, wheat, rapeseed, and broad beans. After the plowing ceremony, everyone will gather in one place, drink wine while singing, and with the rotation of the wine bowl, the song fills the entire valley in early spring until the sun sinks in the west, and return to enjoy themselves.
According to traditional custom, celebrating the Tibetan New Year generally takes fifteen days.