Soon it will be Tsagaan Sar ("White Moon"), the new year festival according to the Mongolian lunar calendar, which is based on a 12 year animal cycle. It marks the beginning of spring, so the worst of the winter must be over. All the ladies are busy preparing thousands of buuz, steamed dumplings filled with mutton, and shopping for drinks and gifts to present to the expected visitors. Since it is the tradition to visit all your older relatives, it follows that the elders will get more visitors and therefore have to prepare the most buuz. Fortunately outside is minus 30 degrees Celcius, or thereabouts, so all the pre-prepared dumplings can be kept safely frozen outside (on the balcony in the case of high rise city dwellers). Mongolian new year sometimes falls on the same day as the Chinese new year, but some years it is one month later. Tsagaan Sar is celebrated for three days on the new moon that occurs two months after the winter solstice. In 2011 this will b...