The year is divided into 12 months, each month ranging from 29 to 30 days, and every third year is a leap year, which maintains the accuracy of the calendar. The years are named after the ten heavenly stems and the 12 earthly branches. A cycle of 60 years is called a rabbyung. In ancient times, the Tibetan year began when the wheat was ripe or being harvested in late summer or early autumn. In the Gongbo area in southeastern Tibet, the new year begins on the first day of the tenth Tibetan lunar month, and the New Year celebration known as Farmers' New Year in western Tibet is often observed on the first day of the 12th Tibetan lunar month.
New Year is the most important festival in Tibet, and preparations begin a month in advance.
There is a general housecleaning, and auspicious signs are drawn with white powder in the courtyards and on the kitchen walls. Every family sprouts qingke barley seeds in water and puts the seedlings before the family shrine on New Year's Day as a prayer for an abundant harvest. Another part of the preparation is the fashioning of a sheep's head out of colored butter. A phyemar, or five-grain bucket, is a must. On New Year's Eve, the family gets together and eats a kind of bread called dguthug, made of nine ingredients, including dried meat, butter bits, and the fruit of Manilkara zapota.