Happy New year from Mongolia! As it gets colder and the pollution gets worse the holiday vibes ramped up and I realised the Mongolians know how to celebrate in style. As Mongolia is a majority Buddhist country, New Years is celebrated as the main holiday event, not Christmas as we do in the West.
In the lead up to New Years our work did this thing called Monitor. Everyone got a random person in the workplace to buy presents for. It is like a secret santa for the entire workplace, it has a different theme every day and we have to find a way to deliver the presents in secret. The theme for the first day was “soft.” I was delivered a jammy Russian cake by the lovely cleaning lady and I had her sneakily drop my Monitor some baby food. At this point I cannot decide whether Monitor is a joke or a serious present buying activity…..
Day 2 of monitor is themed 18+. So of course I received a pair of lacy red undies…. from a colleague. I love this country! I just don’t think this hilarious gift would be acceptable in an Australian workplace. Or mobilising 50 people to buy gifts for another person everyday for a week straight. In Mongolia however, no problem. Me and my colleague bought 2 mantuun buuz, big fluffy Mongolian bread dumplings, and arranged them on a picture of a sexy lady to look like big boobs. Comedy. Gold. The rest of the week was food and lollies and little cards delivered back and forth, themed “red”and “from the heart.”
Then the New Years party came around. Colleagues had told me that this is a night where Mongolians dress up. I had brought a full length silk dress specifically for this occasion, as well as getting my hair and makeup professionally done. We were allowed to leave work at 11am to go get ready….. and the party was on a Tuesday night. This would have to be the most effort I have made since my high school ball.
Well oh lordy! People were dressed the the MF nines. All the women donned full on ball gowns, down to the ground, professional up dos, amazing makeup, a lot of sparkly jewelery. They looked sooooooooo pretty. And suddenly in a floor length dress and makeup I am totally underdressed.
We get to the New Years party a little late because we had Christmas drinks at the Australian embassy before this. Me and my colleague Bogi rock up when the NY “tokens” (videos) are being projected on a huge screen in a ballroom, while a three course meal is served as we watch. NY tokens were a thing I didn’t really understand before they were played at the party. I only get what is communicated to me, so when Bogi asked if she could speak on my behalf in these token preparation meetings I literally had no idea what she was talking about and said yeah sure.
They were amazing. Groups of my colleagues had dressed up and staged Mongolia’s Got Talent (a super popular show here), filming proper edited videos, having met on the weekend to attempt the winning performance. When it came to our teams video, I suddenly see my big head imposed on a puppet doing the Macarena, a massive dancing monstrosity. Everyone cracked up laughing. I guess you could see that as funny…..
At the party a jolly and rather drunk colleague made me swap my dress to the traditional deel she was wearing. As in, she took off her deel and made me put it on. At first I was really reluctant. I thought it would look like I was taking the piss, trying to play dress ups, and as I was the only non-Mongolian there I would stick out like a sore thumb. However, she promised me she would make me a deel of my own before Tsagaan Tsa (the other New Year Mongolians celebrate in February). Surprisingly, I actually got the best reaction. People kept coming up to me to tell me how good I looked in the deel, that I looked beautiful. I’ll take that aye.
I have to say the night ended pretty drunkenly on my behalf…. I may have gotten on the microphone trying to be funny, telling the whole room that they smell on the assumption that they couldn’t understand me.
Like this “Hey everyone, who can understand me?”
small, barely audible “wooh!”
“Well thank you for welcoming me into your organisation and having me in Mongolia”
small, barely audible “wooh”
“You guys all smell bad!”
Gah. Happy New Year aye.
CintaCity 