Losar (Tibetan New Year) · Losar

Culture of origin: Buddhist · Cultural

Holiday sources: Buddhism

Losar, "new year", begins the Tibetan lunisolar year, usually in February or March. It is celebrated for fifteen days, the first three being the main ones, and has its roots in a winter incense-burning custom of the Bon religion, older than Buddhism in Tibet. Families clean their homes beforehand and decorate them with flowers and symbols painted in flour, set out the phyemar, a "five-grain" bucket filled with barley and decorated with barley ears and coloured butter, and eat guthuk together on New Year's Eve. The same new year is kept in Bhutan and by the Sherpas of Nepal, and falls on or near the Mongolian New Year, Tsagaan Sar.