Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Lunar New Year): Dates, Tickets & Venue (Ulaanbaatar)

No box office, no stage

Tsagaan Sar is held in living rooms. The name means “White Moon” or “White Month,” and it is Mongolia’s biggest traditional holiday. In 2027 it runs from February 6 to 8 as a nationwide public holiday.

The “venue” is every apartment block and ger district in Ulaanbaatar. Families gather, younger relatives greet their elders, and the same visits repeat from one household to the next for days. There is nothing to buy a ticket for. What you need is an invitation.

Bituun, the night before

The old year closes with Bituun. This is the eve before the first day of Tsagaan Sar, and families spend it cleaning the home, settling debts and eating heavily. The idea is to start the new year clean and full.

On the morning of the first day, many people walk up a nearby hill to greet the first sunrise of the year. In Ulaanbaatar, Zaisan Memorial on the southern edge of the city is an obvious high point. It looks north over the Tuul River valley and the whole capital.

Gandantegchinlen Monastery, usually shortened to Gandan, fills up during the holiday. Families come to pray and turn the prayer wheels, and the halls are crowded with people in their best deel, the long traditional robe.

What arrives on the table

The table is the heart of every visit. Families start preparing it days in advance, and the layout is much the same from house to house:

• Ul boov: layered, patterned shortbread stacked into a tower in odd-numbered tiers. Sweets, sugar cubes and dried curds sit on top.
• Buuz: steamed mutton dumplings. Households make them by the hundreds and freeze them ahead, because every guest gets a plate.
• Uuts: a whole roasted sheep’s back with the fat tail. It sits in the centre and the host carves from it.
• Aaruul and other “white foods”: dried curd and dairy dishes. They give the holiday its name.
• Suutei tsai: salty milk tea, served first, before anything else.
• Airag (fermented mare’s milk) or vodka, offered in a shared bowl or small glasses.

The ul boov tower is for display as much as eating. Guests take a piece from the top, and the stack stays standing for the rest of the season.

The zolgokh and other house rules

The greeting is the ritual everyone watches. It is called zolgokh. The younger person holds out both arms, palms up, and supports the elder’s forearms from underneath. The elder rests their arms on top, and the two touch cheeks. Often the younger person holds a blue silk khadag scarf draped over their hands.

As a guest, you will usually be the one supporting. Other customs follow from the same idea of respect:

• Accept tea, food and gifts with your right hand, or with both hands. Your left hand can support your right elbow.
• Take at least a taste of whatever is offered. Refusing outright comes across as cold.
• When a glass of vodka is passed, touching it to your lips counts. You do not have to drain it.
• In a ger, step over the threshold, never onto it.
• Visitors usually bring a small gift, and hosts hand back a small gift as you leave.

Older men sometimes offer a snuff bottle. You take a small sniff, or simply hold it up to your nose, and then hand it back.

How outsiders take part

Most foreign visitors join Tsagaan Sar through people they know: colleagues, a homestay family or a guesthouse owner. Several Ulaanbaatar tour operators run hosted visits to family homes during the holiday. These are the most common route for travellers with no local contacts.

Without an invitation, the public side is thinner but real. You can see Gandan on the first morning, the sunrise walkers on the hills, and the city streets full of people in deel travelling between relatives.

Expect very little in the way of shows or festivals. The holiday faces inward, toward the family.

February in the capital

Ulaanbaatar is one of the coldest capital cities on earth, and early February sits in the depth of winter. Temperatures well below freezing are normal even at midday. Visitors usually bring proper insulated boots, layers and face cover for the sunrise walks.

Many shops, restaurants and offices close for the holiday days. Hotels and their restaurants generally keep running, and travellers tend to stock up on food from supermarkets on the days before Bituun.

Inside the city, taxis and ride-hailing run, but traffic spikes as families criss-cross town between visits. Flights land at Chinggis Khaan International Airport, about an hour south of the centre by road.