Losar also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various dates depending on location tradition. The holiday is a new year's festival, celebrated on the first day of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar, which corresponds to a date in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. In 2024,
the new year commenced on 10 February and celebrations ran until the 12th of the same month. It also commenced the Year of the Male Wood Dragon.
A Tibetan monk performance during Losar at Domthok Monastery in the Kham region
Losar celebration in Lhasa, 1938
The Gumpa dance being performed in Lachung during the Tibetan festival of Losar
The New Year is the time or day at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system today, New Year occurs on January 1. This was also the first day of the year in the original Julian calendar and the Roman calendar.
New Year's Eve celebration in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2004)
Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books in this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon.
A Happy New Year sign in northeastern China
New Year's Eve celebration in Helsinki, Finland (2016)