Celebrating the New Year in Mongolia

Mongolians don’t regularly celebrate Christmas unless they are Christians. Especially in the countryside, people are less exposed to one of the most celebrated holidays in the world, unless they have foreign influence such as mine or Americans’. The New Year celebration is regarded differently. In my school, Humuun 1st School of Arkhangai aimag in Mongolia, teachers who are new to school this fall have been assigned to program the entire 4 hour New Year’s party. As part of the faculty members, but also being a foreign volunteer, it was difficult to find my role in this preparation at first. However, despite the communication wall, my jokes in Mongolian didn’t fail to amuse teachers. Thanks to my vastly improved relationship with the younger teachers, now I have several responsibilities for the New Year’s party.
First, I’ve been learning this Mongolian song, which my counterpart claims as the best song of 2009 in Mongolia. I have no clue what the majority of the lyrics means, but my pronunciation has been adequate for teachers to understand. They are already quite excited that I will be singing in their language. It’s only been about 6 months since I arrived in Mongolia, but singing an uneasy and famous Mongolian song may be one of many ways to show my love and passion for Mongolian culture. “Respect is the ultimate currency” right?
I will also be singing another traditional Mongolian song with the rest of the new teachers. We’ve had about 10 new staff members this past fall. For this song, I only have to sing one line by myself, and I can lip sync through the rest of the song.
They told me I have to dance, but I politely refused. They might ask again.
With a fellow KOICA volunteer, I may sing a K-Pop song.
Today, during my English class for teachers, I taught James Ingram’s all-time favorite song “Just Once” to the attendees. I printed out the lyrics for each teacher and also divided up parts for them to practice. I found out Mongolians generally love singing. They all enjoyed the music and were diligently practicing after listening a few times. Some of them copied the MP3 file to their phones, while others saved on their flash drives. I’m definitely satisfied with my song selection and exhilarated with coordinating the ensemble. 🙂
With all other tasks I have nearing the year’s end, I feel somewhat overburdened but quite accomplished. 2011’s year-end will be very special and worthwhile.