The “White Month” is coming to an end: how New Year’s celebrations were spent in Buryatia

– The Government of the Russian Federation until 2030 approved the concept of preserving the ethnocultural heritage of Russia. In your opinion, how important are traditions in the formation of society and youth as well?

– Traditions are our roots, this is what we consider our strength. Russia is a multinational state, including Buryatia. That is, Buryatia is such a mini-copy of Russia, since representatives of about a hundred nationalities live here and it is very important for us that the traditions of both the Buryat people and the Russian people are preserved. You know that about 200 thousand Old Believers live in Buryatia. Our Old Believers call themselves “semeiskie” because they have been migrating entire families for many decades since the time of Catherine the Great. We have Polish emigrants, Tatars, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Evenks – many representatives of peoples and nationalities. And it is very important for us that everyone in the region relies on their own culture. It is no secret that if a person does not know his culture, his traditions, his language, then it is very difficult for him to respect the traditions and culture of other peoples.

— Let’s just talk about the traditions of the Buryat people. Tell us about the New Year, which began on February 10 and will last a whole month. What happens this month?

– Buddhists around the world celebrate the New Year according to the lunar calendar, which is somewhat different from the usual one. Therefore, the whole world celebrates the New Year on January 1, but in our country every time the New Year begins on a certain date. Next year, for example, the New Year according to the Buddhist calendar will begin much later. This year it fell on February 10th. And all the Buddhist regions of Russia – and these are the Altai Territory, Kalmykia, Tuva, Buryatia – celebrated it on these days. They begin to prepare for the holiday in advance. We make buzy – this is a very tasty national dish, which consists of ground meat and dough. We call the “White Month” holiday Sagaalgan or Tsagan sar. Sagaan in Buryat means white. And literally translated, this means “white month.” The holiday has three phases. The first is preparatory; the New Year takes place according to the rules established by the clergy. And first of all, such a very colorful and very necessary action is organized – the Dugzhuub ritual. Dugzhuuba is a fire in which everything negative, everything bad that happened this year burns, but everything bright remains and goes into the next year. And so people prepare, come to this event, prayers are read there. And people throw everything unnecessary and outdated into a symbolic fire.

— Does this symbolize some kind of purification?

Yes, Dugzhuuba is a symbol of purification, a symbol of purity. On the eve of the holiday there is also such a day as Butuu Uder – translated as “closed” or “dark” day. On this day you cannot eat meat, you do not need to drink alcohol, people cleanse their homes and prepare for the holiday, prepare their minds and bodies for a meeting with Baldan Lhama – the keeper of the faith, who flies around her domain early in the morning, when dawn comes and you see fingers of your hands. Previously, there was no electricity and dawn was determined by whether you could see your fingers. And at this time no one sleeps. Families try to wake up, prepare some treats and offerings to the goddess in advance. These are such colorful plates consisting of dishes. At the same time, the mandatory multi-story structure is observed. We collect the most delicious, culinary delights. Such soufflés are especially popular, preferably white. All this is laid out beautifully in layers on a plate, and the crown of it all should be something white – maybe butter, cheese, cottage cheese. We use milk foam. All this is placed in front of the altar, which has been cleaned and put in order in advance. Prayers are read before him and incense is lit.

And at the time when the goddess Baldan Lhama descends to earth, you need to get up, go out, and ask for happiness, health, longevity to all your loved ones and pray for all living beings. In Datsan, early in the morning, clergy read prayers for the favorable life of all living beings on Earth. On the first day of the New Year, and here in Buryatia it is declared a holiday and a day off, people go to visit their older relatives. These are parents, uncles, aunts, older sisters and brothers, to those closest to them, on the first day they visit loved ones with gifts, with hadaks – wide ritual ribbons. They are presented to elders as a sign of respect and as a sign of purity of thoughts. Hadaks can be of different colors, the traditional color is blue.

Gifts are prepared in advance for the holiday. Not necessarily expensive, for grandmothers it could be scarves, scarves, tea – a very good gift. We prepare sweets for children in advance, because every child who comes to visit us is a blessing and we always give children candies, sweets and small banknotes. You can visit other relatives and friends during the remaining days; we have a whole month ahead of us. Now is the age of speed and there is always not enough time to communicate. And the Sagaalgan holiday is an occasion to meet with all your relatives, with all your close friends, chat, and share news.

For 15 days, prayers are read in Datsany. These days are dedicated to the fifteen miracles that Buddha performed. And these days we visit lamas – Buddhist clergy, and look at the horoscope to see what awaits us this year. Astrological books are opened and, based on the year of your birth, they predict the future for a year. They can tell you what is dangerous for you, even to which side of the world you should not go this year or where you need to be very careful, for example, on bodies of water. There is nothing wrong with this, because you can pray, order some prayers and rectify the situation.

— And on the last day of the celebration, maybe something special also happens?

– The holiday gradually goes downward throughout the month. And it’s especially important in the first 15 days to think about good things, it’s very important to do good deeds, you can’t do bad things, you can’t swear, you can’t get angry. These days a person accumulates blessings. And the more there are, the better. These are the features.

— Are there any other significant holidays in Buryatia that are at approximately the same level of importance?

– I can tell you what we, the Ministry of Culture, are doing these days. On the first day of Sagaalgan, we definitely hold a big festive concert, which our residents come to. And no matter how many seats there are in the hall, it is always full, tickets are always sold. There we also organize an exhibition of gifts and souvenirs, and invite craftsmen. Since this is the month when you need to think only about good things, we are holding a contest of good wishes. There are well wishes in Russian, in Buryat, when you wish everything, everything good. This competition is also very popular, it is the oral creativity of the people. And before the concert, we will definitely sum up the results of this competition. At the concert, the head of the republic necessarily congratulates all spectators and everyone living in Buryatia. Throughout the month, each theater prepares something. Children’s productions are especially popular.

— How interested are young people in such events? Is there a specific age audience or are these traditional events of interest to everyone?

– It seems to me that this is interesting to everyone: both children and adults. Everyone enjoys preparing, everyone enjoys visiting, going to theaters, and going to concerts. It’s a holiday.

— What other plans does the Ministry of Culture of Buryatia have for 2024? Maybe there will be some other traditional holidays?

Every year we announce a national costume competition. You can come to this event in a Buryat degel, or in a Russian national costume. It doesn’t matter what nationality a person is, he can come in his suit. In this way we encourage the observance of traditions, because the costume is also part of the traditions

This year we held a kind of degel show. Degel is the Buryat national outerwear, translated as “coat”. This year we held a very interesting show, we staged a whole procession. There they sang and congratulated each other, all of which was actively spread across social networks. This had such a good response, I looked at the comments under the publications, people write “I didn’t know that this procession would happen, if I had known, I would have come,” “I don’t have a degel, I’ll definitely sew it by next year,” and so on. I saw a very good response in Mongolia: the Buryats celebrate their holiday better than us. We really liked it and moved on. We want to hold the same procession on Maslenitsa in Russian national costumes. And we will probably repeat this show in the summer. We would really like all nationalities, all residents of the republic to come in their national costumes and walk in this bright procession.

— That is, it really unites people.

– Yes. It’s interesting, it’s fun, it’s bright. And at the same time, somehow it is very valuable for all of us.