Mongolia - The traditional Naadam festival

One of the great traditional and national festivals of Mongolia is the Naadam festival, among the most popular and important in the country, celebrated in these days. The Festival is characterised by three games: wrestling, archery and horse racing. It is celebrated from the eleventh to the thirteenth of July and all Mongolians travel from every province to reach Ulaanbaatar and see the shows linked to the competitions. In 2010 this Festival was added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The origins of the Naadam Festival go back about 2500 years and it is the second oldest olympiad in the world. It was the Huns who began this tradition, to see who was the strongest among men, who the fastest with the horse, who the best at shooting with the bow. The Naadam festival is inseparably linked to the nomadic civilisation of the Mongolians, nomadic herders who have managed to live in the vast steppe of Central Asia for centuries.

Wrestling

Wrestling is one of the national sports of Mongolia, with a history going back about 7000 years: in Dundgobi at Olziit sum, in southern Mongolia, scholars have found a rock engraving from the Bronze Age that depicts the sport of wrestling. Every year 1024 wrestlers take part in Naadam to win the title of “The Titan of Mongolia”.

Today the wrestlers wear a garment open at the chest. A legend tells that one year a woman also took part secretly in the wrestling and won, and since then all wrestlers wear a robe with an opening at the chest.

Archery

In the archery competition all people can take part, with no age limits, what matters is that they wear the traditional blue garment (the colour of the infinite sky). The targets are placed at 75 metres for men and 60 m for women. For boys at 55m and for girls 45m. According to the secret history of the Mongols in the time of Genghis Khan, during Naadam, his nephew Esunhe shot with the bow at a target 500m away.

Horse racing

Children from 5 to 10-12 years of age take part in the horse race, depending on their weight. The kilometres to cover vary according to the age of the horses, horses from 2 to 6 years of age can compete and the course is at most 25 km long. The prizes go to the first five classified.