| The New Year's Festival is called losar in the Tibetan | | | | -Water Rush |
| Language. Being one of the most important festivals in | | | | One who can fetch the first bucket of water in the |
| Tibet, this festival is a feast of thanksgiving, and usually | | | | river on the first day of Losar is consider as a lucky |
| celebrated from mid-February to early March. Different | | | | person. For fetching the lucky water, in some areas of |
| from the Han Chinese people's Spring Festival, the | | | | Tibet, some people even take their buckets and rush |
| Tibetans' losar has very conspicuously ethnic flavor | | | | to the rivers at the midnight. They would stay on the |
| and characteristics. | | | | riverside until daybreak when they can fetch the |
| -Draw Guqia | | | | water. |
| During the Tibetan Losar, the Tibetans would use the | | | | -Offer Sacrifices to the Harvest Goddess |
| Tsam-pa (aka zanba, a Tibetan food, roasted qingke | | | | After taking the first bucket of lucky water back |
| barley flour) to draw the eight auspicious pictures in the | | | | home, the Tibetans would take some Qingke wine |
| Tibetan Buddhism, such as treasured parasols, golden | | | | (made from the Qinke barley), fruit and Tsam-pa to |
| fish, treasured vases, snow lotus, lucky knots, trumpet | | | | sacrifice to the Harvest Goddess in their own best |
| shells, triumphant tents and golden wheels. The pictures | | | | cropland. Unlike the daily-eat Tsam-pa (aka Zanba, |
| are called Guqia in Tibetan language. The Tibetan | | | | usually Tibetans' staple food, roasted qingke barley |
| people decorate their houses with Guqia, something | | | | flour), today's Tsam-pa must be made with the lucky |
| like the Han Chinese paste up the couplets on both | | | | water in a bowl that set before the statue of the God |
| sides of the doors on New Year's Eve. | | | | (usually, the bowl is always being set there all the year |
| -Eat Xiangzhai | | | | round). |
| Traditionally, the Tibetan people would eat Xiangzhai in | | | | -Meet the Zhega Buskers |
| the first evening of Tibetan Losar. Xiangzhai is made | | | | Tibetan people usually get up very early on the first |
| from curry, ghee, rice, potato and cooked mutton. This | | | | day of the New Year because they have to meet a |
| food takes very delicious. | | | | very important old busker. When the busker say |
| -Eat Gutu | | | | "Zhega" outside their doors, the families open the |
| Like the Northern Han Chinese eating Jiaozi (Chinese | | | | doors and invite him get into their houses and serve |
| dumpling) on the evening of the New Year's Eve (30th | | | | him a Khatag and a cup of Qingke wine, at the same |
| of Chinese Lunar Calendar). On the Eve of Losar | | | | time, they sprinkle some Tsam-pa and kernel on his |
| (29th of Tibetan Lunar Calendar), the Tibetan families | | | | body. The Tibetan people think that this way can bring |
| usually seat around the table to enjoy a special | | | | them good luck in the New Year. |
| dumpling - "gutu", its wrapper is made from Qinke (a | | | | -Put Up Auspicious Pennants |
| highland barley) and fillings are meat, little stones, wool, | | | | It can be said that without rituals there is no |
| red pepper, charcoal and coins etc. When somebody | | | | holidaymaking in Tibet. On New Year's Day, Tibetan |
| eats a gutu, s/he must tell the others what the fillings s | | | | would put up colored pennants with Buddhism |
| he has got. The Tibetans believe that the fillings can | | | | scriptures on the roofs or the top of the hills. At the |
| indicate the eater's character. | | | | same time, they ignite the holy grass, place Qingke |
| -Dispel the Ghosts | | | | Wine and food before the pennants (or at home) and |
| The activity of "dispelling the ghosts" is held in the | | | | pray for a good harvest and a safe, sound and |
| evening of Dec. 29 (Tibetan lunar calendar). After | | | | growing family. After praying, they enjoy singing and |
| dinner, Tibetan men kindle a firebrand and run in a ring | | | | dancing around the pennants. |
| in every corner of their houses and say "get out of | | | | -Pay Homage and Make the Pilgrimage |
| here, get out of here..." After that, they throw the | | | | During Losar, pay Homage and make the Pilgrimage is |
| firebrands and some food (for the ghosts) on the | | | | also a must for the Tibetan people. They make |
| crossroads. By this way, the Tibetans believe that the | | | | pilgrimage to the temples or lamaseries, light the ghee |
| setbacks and whammy of the year have been driven | | | | lamps and say their prayers there. |
| out of their houses, and they will meet a new year in | | | | -Pay New Year Call |
| the clean houses. | | | | Like other nationalities of China, the Tibetan people also |
| -Invite the Dogs to Eat a Meal | | | | pay New Year call during their Losar. They hold |
| After dispelling the ghosts, the Tibetan families will invite | | | | Qingke (a kind of highland barley), ghee flowers, |
| the dogs to eat a meal. They put the food in the | | | | Qingke wine, Qiema (the colored ears of barley) out of |
| wooden bowls or place the food on the long wood | | | | houses and pay a call to their relatives and friends. |
| boards and invite the dogs enjoy the food. | | | | |