Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TSAGAN SAR)

The celebration of Tsagan Sar, or White Month, takes place two months after Zul on the first day of spring according to the lunar calendar. It is a celebration of the coming of spring when nature wakes up from its winter sleep. Because white symbolizes purity and the beginning of life, the celebration is called White Month.

The preparation for the celebration begins with cleaning the house. All valuables kept in chests and drawers are taken out, cleaned and aired. People prepare their best clothes for the celebration. Both the house and the cattle yard are purified with incense.

On the eve of Tsagan Sar all families cook traditional biscuits called bortsg, of various shapes, each of which has its own name and symbolic meaning. For example, tselvg or khavtkha symbolizes the Sun; togsh – a fence for enclosing sheep; jola – long life; khutsyn tolga – animal offspring; khorkha – fertility, etc. After the baking is done, Kalmyks light candles and place some biscuits on the family altar. The oldest members of the family perform a ritual called tsagana bortsg yoryallgn in which they utter well-wishes for the bortsg biscuits. Afterwards the biscuits are tied together with a thread pushed through them to form gift bundles. Each gift bundle must have a specific number of each kind of bortsg, that is one khavtha, six togsh, one khutsyn tolga, one jola, one moshkmr, three shor and one kit.

On the first day of Tsagan Sar, early in the morning the head of the family offers tea to the goddess of the hearth, Okn Tengr. He then pulls the door of the house wide open, steps out with his right leg, while his left leg is still inside the house, and sprinkles the tea upwards as an offering. During the holiday houses should have their doors open and have a table laid with food for guests. A traditional greeting on this day is 'Did you spend the winter well?' (Uvles mend garvt?). Hand shaking or tsagallgn is done as follows. The two touch each other's elbows with the palm of their hands, which are covered by the edge of their sleeves. The one who first offers a greeting has to touch the left collarbone of the other person with his/her right collarbone.

During Tsagan Sar children visit their maternal relatives, taking with them presents. In return, they receive a present in the form of a sheep's leg. This ritual is called ze berkh.

Tsagan Sar lasts for a month and the ritualized hand shaking of tsagallgn may be performed until the beginning of Ur(s) Sar. In the first fifteen days of Tsagan Sar, monasteries perform special rituals to commemorate the victory of the Buddha over falsehood. According to yet another legend, Tsagan Sar is also celebrated to commemorate the victory of the goddess Okn Tengr over a demon that wished to destroy the entire humanity.