Well it has been a crazy few days for my husband. On Feburary 9th Mongolian's celebrate the new moon. The celebration consists of going to family and friends homes and eating and eating until you are very full. This year we had a celebration at our church building on Thrusday night. We had about 50 people attend, most Mongolians. We ate a lot of Mongolian traditional food and some American food. They played chess and visited. Munich and I had the opportunity to do the decorations for the party. I am sad to say I forgot my camera yet again. It looked really good and I feel so bad I didn't take any photos. I feel like the past few days I haven't seen my husband. He has been visiting everyone and going to get togethers. I didn't go cause Milan was naping or I didn't think she would sit still very long. However this evening Munich really wanted me to go visit some Mongolian friends homes so I could see first hand how they celebrate the new year. We went to several homes and I have to say it was very interesting to see. They are not kidding when they say you eat and eat. My stomach is very full right now cause of Mongolian culture it is not good to say no. The food wasn't bad and it actually tasted good. As you can see I didn't take any pictures but I found these on the web. You will see a stack of cookies and this is traditional centerpiece for their celebration. Each layer starting from the bottom means good luck, bad luck, good luck and so on. They have to have an odd number and end on good luck. This means your year will be well for you. They put either sugar cubes on top and around the layers and even dry curde milk. You can also see in one of the pictures and actual dead animal. This is very traditional and we did not see that tonight, but Munich told me if we went to Mongolia I would. I didn't think that was very applealing. They eat the animal as well. The animal is mutton. One last tradition I learned about tonight is when you greet your elder you are supposed to give them some sort of gift. And you greet them in a certain way. The younger person holds their hand out and palms up and holds the elbow of the elder. Then the elder will kiss both checks. I was able to experience this and watch tonight. I even recieved my first gift and gave my first gift. Most will give a gift in the form of money. It was a very interesting evening and I really enjoyed getting to know more about Munich's culture. I also meet a lot of really nice people too.
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