New year: cheeses that mark them
Cheeses that welcome a new year in the lunar, solar and religious calendars.
New year tables in many cultures carry cheese. At Mongolian Tsagaan Sar, the White Moon, a tower of biscuits is crowned with aaruul and other white dairy foods. Persian Nowruz meals include bread, herbs and white cheese. Bengalis mark Pohela Boishakh with chhena sweets, Georgians see in the year with khachapuri, and French Saint-Sylvestre dinners run to a full cheese course.
Tsagaan Sar and the white foods
Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian lunar new year, is named for the colour white, which stands for purity and good fortune, and dairy foods are called white foods. The centrepiece of the table is ul boov, layers of baked biscuit stacked in odd numbers and topped with aaruul, sugar cubes and sweets. Guests are offered milk tea, steamed dumplings and dairy foods. Losar, the new year of Tibet, Ladakh and Bhutan, also sets out butter and dairy foods among its offerings.
Nowruz and Pohela Boishakh
Nowruz, the Persian new year at the spring equinox, is kept in Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Nan-o panir-o sabzi, bread with white cheese and fresh herbs, is an everyday Iranian dish that also appears on Nowruz tables. On Pohela Boishakh in mid-April, Bengalis in West Bengal and Bangladesh visit sweet shops, and traders open new account books, the haal khata, offering sweets to their customers.
Western new years
In Georgia, the New Year supra fills with khachapuri, satsivi and churchkhela. In France, the Saint-Sylvestre dinner, like Christmas, has a cheese course before dessert, and Vacherin Mont d'Or is often baked for it. Russian New Year's Eve tables, the biggest family feast of the winter, carry plates of sliced cheese beside Olivier salad and herring under a fur coat. In Spain, the long dinner before the twelve grapes of midnight often begins with a plate of Manchego and cured ham.
Worth knowing
- Tsagaan Sar: Mongolian new year of the white foods
- Ul boov: Biscuit tower topped with aaruul
- Aaruul: Dried curd of the Mongolian table
- Sabzi khordan: Herbs served with bread and white cheese
- Khachapuri: At the Georgian New Year supra
- Sandesh: Bought for Pohela Boishakh
- Vacherin Mont d'Or: Baked for the Saint-Sylvestre dinner
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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