The Tibetan people celebrate the Tibetan New Year according to their own calendar, usually around the time of the Spring Festival. Preparations for the New Year begin at the beginning of December in the Tibetan calendar, such as brewing barley wine, deep-frying fruits with white flour and ghee, and making various kinds of snacks, which are called kasai in Tibetan. Each family will also set up in the hall dyed ears of wheat, barley seedlings, as well as ghee flowers molded sheep's head. This symbolizes the good harvest of the past year and wishes for a good harvest in the new year.
The day before New Year's Eve, families dump all sewage and dirt on both sides as the sun is setting. They believe that this is a guarantee of prosperity and growth of all things. On the evening of New Year's Eve, the whole family sits around and eats a reunion dinner. Tibetans like to eat oil cake, milk cake, hand-held meat, fresh milk and other food. All in one.
According to traditional Tibetan customs, the first morning of the New Year's Day by the first housewife to get up, wash up, first to the river or well to draw new water, who can be the first to the new water back, not only the whole family auspicious, but also a sign of the New Year's wind and rain. Then the animals are fed and the whole family is woken up. The whole family, men, women and children, put on their festive attire and sit down in order of seniority. On the first day of the New Year, before eating, each person must first dip a little tsampa noodles in his mouth to show that he is eating tsampa Yu Sun. At this time, the elders came to a called bamboo Suqi horse grain bucket, which is loaded with tsampa, ginseng fruit, fried broad beans, fried wheat grains and other food, the top is also inserted with barley spike, each person in turn, grab a little bit to the air to spread, said the sacrifice to the gods, then grab a little bit of their own to eat. Elder by elder to wish Zahidl (good luck). The younger generation will wish the old man Zaxi Dele Peng Songcuo (good luck, merit and virtue). After the New Year's ceremony, the whole family then sits together, drinks barley wine, eats ginseng fruit and other food, and celebrates the New Year. On the first day of the year, the whole family gathers behind closed doors and does not visit each other. Starting from the second day, they pay New Year's visit to each other, which lasts for three to five days. The girls and sisters-in-law often form groups and take various ways to snatch food from the men, who are not allowed to show any opposition. Through this kind of food-grabbing activities, some young men and women exchanged feelings and promoted friendship. At night, the young herdsmen or around the yellow fire singing old songs, or indulge in joyful dancing pot Zhuang dance and string dance.
During the Tibetan New Year, Tibetan opera is performed everywhere, and various competitions such as jousting, throwing, tug-of-war, horse racing and archery are held. In Lhasa, Tibetan residents put up new sutra streamers on the roofs of their houses early in the morning to pray for a good harvest and good fortune in the new year. The sutra streamers are made of blue, white, red, green and yellow cloth, which means blue sky, white clouds, red fire, green water and yellow soil, and the Tibetan scriptures are printed on them. When the tree is used for the sutra streamers, the five-color sutra cloth is usually draped on the branches first, and then the branches filled with the five-color cloth are inserted on the roof of the house. Tree good streamers, but also on the roof of the barley wine, fried noodles and other offerings, burning vanilla, and then dance and sing, wishing a year of good weather, good luck.
In the city center in front of the Da Zhao Temple, the streamers in more than ten meters high on the scripture column fluttering. There was a steady stream of people turning the scripture, and believers circled the scripture pillars, devoutly. Walking silently.