The beautiful Christmas tree Marm sent, complete with presents for unwrapping at Christmas! Thanks, moms and wonderful friends!Happy New Year!!!
We have had a wonderful holiday season here, despite missing good times with family and friends back home. The two weeks in UB playing with Peace Corps friends, and the playing with Mongolian friends here in Choibalsan have been fun and rejuvenating. Combined with the gifts and greetings from home, we have the holiday spirit all around us.
Many have asked if Christmas is celebrated here. The answer is yes and no. They don’t have Christmas in the religious sense. Christianity is not a popular religion here. The culture has adopted much of the symbolism, however, and has incorporated it into their New Year’s observations, without all of the same practices or trappings as we have at home. There are tinsel, garland, and strings of lights everywhere. A common style is to hang extra long tinsel, strand-by-strand, from the ceilings; a labor intensive process with a big payoff. The glints of rainbow light look great. At the same time, it can be tough to navigate through the jungles of tinsel, as it often hangs down to neck level. There are artificial trees in many of the restaurants and schools. Many people know some of the better-known American Christmas songs, with maybe a dozen versions of "Last Christmas" being the runaway favorites. The culture has a Santa-like New Year's figure. He's an old, bearded man dressed in blue and white, who is like a shepherd of snow and winter, and goes by names such as "Winter Grandfather" and "Old Snow Man;" but some people have taken to calling him Santa.
There is modest gift-giving with candy and snacks being the dominant choices. We’re told socks are pretty popular, too.
Actually, ringing in the new year is a much bigger deal than Christmas, with parties, fireworks and the requisite watching of wrestling on TV. Generally, socializing with co-workers is a very big deal here and usually the spouses are left at home during office parties. The New Year’s bash is no exception, yet Julie’s school colleagues were kind enough to include me in the activities. It was a great time! A wonderful thing about partying with people here is that many people seem to adopt us as instant friends. I liken it to children meeting on the playground for the first time – often a bond develops, almost immediately, and we play together like we’ve been life-long buddies. Part of it is their welcoming, playful nature, part is that Julie and I are a novelty, and part of it, I think, is the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” condition – have a blast now and the details will not leave the room.
We’re pictured here with two of Julie’s co-workers, Chimgee and Zoloo, seated at a pretty typical holiday table.
The cakes are beautiful and ubiquitous and serve as the centerpiece of a New Year's party table. The big, frosted bottle is “Chinggis” vodka, the top of the line here. On New Year's, people get dressed up in their finest. The women often get their hair styled just for this party and wear lavish dresses as if going to the prom. Dusting hair and painting eyes with glitter is common and adorable, even for some of the men.
At the party, we were fed several yummy courses, played games, and danced a lot. Unlike at home, where it is more common to eat first and then dance, the dancing begins right away here. The common method is for people to form a large circle and the braver, zanier dancers take turns in the middle. The dance music varies a lot with some ABBA, hip-hop and techno in the standard dance mix. The big game was a lottery in which nearly everyone won something (Julie even won 1000 tugriks - a whole dollar!), and in another game, I found myself in a bizarre situation – blind-folded with absolutely no clue about what was being said or what I was supposed to do. Zoloo helped me by explaining that I was supposed to feel people and guess who they were. Knowing only a few people in the crowd made the task even stranger. I could only laugh and play along. Julie got to be one of the "feelees," though, so at least I got one right!
We have had a wonderful holiday season here, despite missing good times with family and friends back home. The two weeks in UB playing with Peace Corps friends, and the playing with Mongolian friends here in Choibalsan have been fun and rejuvenating. Combined with the gifts and greetings from home, we have the holiday spirit all around us.
Many have asked if Christmas is celebrated here. The answer is yes and no. They don’t have Christmas in the religious sense. Christianity is not a popular religion here. The culture has adopted much of the symbolism, however, and has incorporated it into their New Year’s observations, without all of the same practices or trappings as we have at home. There are tinsel, garland, and strings of lights everywhere. A common style is to hang extra long tinsel, strand-by-strand, from the ceilings; a labor intensive process with a big payoff. The glints of rainbow light look great. At the same time, it can be tough to navigate through the jungles of tinsel, as it often hangs down to neck level. There are artificial trees in many of the restaurants and schools. Many people know some of the better-known American Christmas songs, with maybe a dozen versions of "Last Christmas" being the runaway favorites. The culture has a Santa-like New Year's figure. He's an old, bearded man dressed in blue and white, who is like a shepherd of snow and winter, and goes by names such as "Winter Grandfather" and "Old Snow Man;" but some people have taken to calling him Santa.
There is modest gift-giving with candy and snacks being the dominant choices. We’re told socks are pretty popular, too.
Actually, ringing in the new year is a much bigger deal than Christmas, with parties, fireworks and the requisite watching of wrestling on TV. Generally, socializing with co-workers is a very big deal here and usually the spouses are left at home during office parties. The New Year’s bash is no exception, yet Julie’s school colleagues were kind enough to include me in the activities. It was a great time! A wonderful thing about partying with people here is that many people seem to adopt us as instant friends. I liken it to children meeting on the playground for the first time – often a bond develops, almost immediately, and we play together like we’ve been life-long buddies. Part of it is their welcoming, playful nature, part is that Julie and I are a novelty, and part of it, I think, is the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” condition – have a blast now and the details will not leave the room.
We’re pictured here with two of Julie’s co-workers, Chimgee and Zoloo, seated at a pretty typical holiday table.
The cakes are beautiful and ubiquitous and serve as the centerpiece of a New Year's party table. The big, frosted bottle is “Chinggis” vodka, the top of the line here. On New Year's, people get dressed up in their finest. The women often get their hair styled just for this party and wear lavish dresses as if going to the prom. Dusting hair and painting eyes with glitter is common and adorable, even for some of the men.At the party, we were fed several yummy courses, played games, and danced a lot. Unlike at home, where it is more common to eat first and then dance, the dancing begins right away here. The common method is for people to form a large circle and the braver, zanier dancers take turns in the middle. The dance music varies a lot with some ABBA, hip-hop and techno in the standard dance mix. The big game was a lottery in which nearly everyone won something (Julie even won 1000 tugriks - a whole dollar!), and in another game, I found myself in a bizarre situation – blind-folded with absolutely no clue about what was being said or what I was supposed to do. Zoloo helped me by explaining that I was supposed to feel people and guess who they were. Knowing only a few people in the crowd made the task even stranger. I could only laugh and play along. Julie got to be one of the "feelees," though, so at least I got one right!
Here are a couple of holiday scenes: holiday cakes for sale at the market; a school pageant with students dressed as the 12 different animals in the Chinese zodiak; and another cherub...
We wish you, our dear friends and family many blessings and good times in the year ahead. Happy 2008!!!!!!!
3 comments:
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my site, it is about the CresceNet, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . A hug.
Greetings Julie & Jim,
From Craftsbury Common Vermont a voice from the way back, Jeremy Brosnahan.
Over the winter break I ran into Susan Monstrenzō, she told me briefly of your exploits and directed me to your site. Thus far seems like an epic adventure in culture and ecology. I have since seeing you last Julie(I can’t even remember when this was), spent some time in Asia with three months in Hokkaido Japan and two months in the states of Sikkim and Ladakh India with a side trip into Nepal. I have a lot of respect for the many cultures in this region of the world. It is nice to read of your experiences in Mongolia, I enjoy the pictures of avian wildlife. Are their any other animals that you have come across that would be hard pressed to find in New England? The girl dancing in the opening day of school ceremony, her dress is very similar to the Tibetan ceremonial dress used for a school performance my class received in Sikkim. They all seem to have a wonderful appreciation of the traditional songs and dress, though it is sad to see the younger generation only use it for ceremony and not in their every day attire. A lot of it seems more functional and sustainable then the western influenced clothing I was witnessed to.
My school Sterling College, has been exploring a field studies program to take place in Mongolia. I am curious if you have any thing to say that I could pass on to the “higher ups” in hopes of jump-starting this program.
In my agricultural techniques class we covered the subject of harvesting farm animals, The Mongolian method of ending a sheep’s life is very interesting and seems the least traumatic for the animal I have seen, though it must be a very primal event for the doer. I’ll let you explorer that further if you feel so incline.
Shoot me back if you get the chance, jbrosnahanATstudentsDOTsterlingcollegeDOTedu
All the best and safe travels
Jeremy
hello.i am Becky.i enjoy your blog so much and your blog is very nice and interesting.HAPPY NEW YEAR!snine jiliin mend hurgii!!!!!!!!!!!Love,Zolzaya
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