Each year, Kushok invites all members of Gaden Samten Ling and their friends and families to join together to celebrate Tibetan New Year, or Losar. In 2004, we celebrated Losar on Saturday, Feb. 21. Gaden Samten Ling marks the auspicious day with prayers and a lunch get-together. Things generally get underway around 10 a.m. at the centre.

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Although the date for Losar ("lo" means year) changes annually based on the lunar cycle, Losar traditions are carried out to this day wherever there are Tibetan Buddhists. Prior to Losar, monks spend eight days from dawn until evening involved in secret wrathful prayers and rituals. The aim is to dispel negative energies in the upcoming year. A huge torma (a mountain shaped offering made of roasted barley flour) is offered in the small shrine room of the protectorate deity found in each monastery. Kushok explains this torma is .extremely powerful, like a missile, but its power is positive, not negative. In the evening two days before Losar, the monks destroy the torma and offerings are made to the unseen beings (pretas).

That same day, lay people and monks alike are busy cleaning: physically and symbolically preparing for a clean beginning. A tradition which is somewhat more superstitious than religious sees people take out any leftover food, some spices, salt, and other old items such as socks or shoes, and dump these signs of the old in the middle of a main intersection. These people hope that the spirits will be pleased and enjoy the offerings and thus not bother them in the upcoming year.

The next day, the day before Losar, is when the new moon occurs. In preparation, new prayer flags replace the old ones, new door curtains (Tib. gho-yu) are hung and most importantly, the altar is cleaned and arranged beautifully. Besides water bowls and butter lamps traditional Losar offerings include wheat and a plate piled high with deep-fried pastry (Tib. kap-sey), both auspicious as signs of future prosperity.

Everyone gets up well before dawn on Losar morning, washes and dresses in their new clothes. Families take offerings to the lamas and receive blessings. They light candles and incense, circumambulate the monastery or stupas and turn the prayer wheels. Later there might be a breakfast of wheat porridge and a celebratory hot drink of homemade fermented wheat, barley or rice.

Losar is actually celebrated over several days, with this first day devoted to spiritual practice, or time at home with your family in kind behaviour to set a positive start for the whole year. The following days are spent alternatively visiting and hosting relatives and friends.

(Thanks to Kushok and Nawang for sharing this information.)