Losar: Tibetan New Year Traditions

Tibetan New Year, or Losar, is celebrated across the greater Himalayan region and around the world with celebrations that typically last for fifteen days. Losar begins with a three-day festival featuring delicious food, traditional dances, and a focus on a benevolent and prosperous year to come. As one of the most important holidays in Tibet, Losar is a celebration of renewal, reflection, and community bonding.

Central to the holiday are efforts to cleanse and purify, and those who celebrate aim to release negativity from the past year and invite in positivity. Losar marks the beginning of the Tibetan calendar year—a time for family gatherings, religious ceremonies, and feasting on special foods such as khapse pastries.

Each year in the Tibetan calendar is tied to an animal—hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, bird, dog, boar, rat, ox, and tiger. The symbolic qualities of that animal are said to be reflected in their year. For instance, the year of the snake is associated with wisdom and transformation.

People celebrate Losar by making torma. These important ritual offerings in Tibetan Buddhism are made from flour and butter, and are often placed in shrines. Torma are traditionally displayed during Chunga Choepa, the Butter Lamp Festival, which takes place on the fifteenth day of Losar.

It is also common to hang prayer flags to welcome the new year and bring forth good fortune. It is believed that when the wind blows the flags, the prayers printed on the surface are read and spread blessings and positive energy across the area.