Mongolian New Year Celebration

Many Mongolians celebrate Christmas and New Years on New Years Eve.  They gather as family and eat a large evening meal, open presents, then celebrate New Years with a champagne toast and cake.  At 12:15am the President of Mongolia gives a New Years speech with his goals for the year and vision for the people.  He set an interesting example by offering a New Years toast with a bowl of milk and asked the people to follow his example and not use vodka or champagne.

This is the very large city theater where we have seen a number of wonderful concerts and performances. It is about one block from our apartment.  You can see the tall Christmas tree and the ice carvings in front. This is where thousands will gather tonight for the shows and fireworks to bring in the New Year. 

 This is Iron Man.  As you enter Darkhan from the South there is a huge statue made of iron as a tribute to a large steel manufacturer in Darkhan. This sculpture is a replica.

 Here is Iron Man later that evening as we arrived for the music and fireworks.  All of the ice carvings had lights of different colors inside them. It was cold!

The stage where Emcees introduced rock and rap groups.  There were also music videos on a large screen.

They had a nice display of fireworks. We tried to catch some fireworks behind us but no luck.  Happy New Year!!!















     The Original "Iron Man" About 60 feet tall

As part of the New Year's festivities, we had a wonderful evening with this family. The beautiful young lady in the middle is Nurjan. Her and I get together to study English for her and Mongolian for me. Nurjan is the most studious young person I have ever met! She speaks Mongolian, Turkish and English. The effort she puts into studying English is commendable!  She hopes to attend BYU-Hawaii for one year before going on a mission at age 19. The family, at the present time, have an older daughter and son serving missions in Mongolia. The dad, Raikhan, works in a gold mine in the Gobi desert and the mom, Khandaa, is Primary President in our branch. They are faithful in the gospel and such an example to us.