Celebration
National holiday-Naadam
The Mongolian National holiday Naadam is celebrated in Mongolia each year on 11 July. “Eriin gurvan naadam”-the three manly games of wrestling,horse racing and archery-make up the core activities of National Day festivities.

WRESTLING at the start of a competition all the wrestlers with the higher title-holders in front, enter the hall in a line wearing gutuls (decorated Mongolian boots) and hats and their wrestling costumes called zodog”shuudag”.There are many different titles for the wrestlers such as Titan (avarga), Lion (arslan), Elephant (Zaan) and Falcon (Nachin).

When a wrestler touches the ground with any part of his body other than his feet and palms, he is considered to be defeated. The main difference between Mongolian national wrestling and international free style wrestling is that the weight category of wrestlers is not taken into consideration.

HORSE RACING Mongolian people have loved horse racing since time immemorial. A whole system for conducting the contests has developed over the centuries. In the races held during national festivals, including Naadam, the participants are in six age groups and the distances range from 15 to 30 kilometers. No special track is prepared, the horses covering the distance in the steppe and jumping over natural barriers. Before they start the riders sing an ancient war-like song-Giingoo. The competitors start at the finishing line and at the signal to start and back to the finish line.

The winner is honoured with a cup of airag which he drinks and sprinkles on the head and croup of his horse. After the races, a praise-singer extols the best riders and their horses.

ARCHERY The third element of the national games is archery.
Today Mongolians use a less complicated form of archery than in ancient time: the target is a “wall” made of cork cylinders braided together with leather straps. It is four meters long and 50 cm high. The target is placed on the ground at a distance of 75 meters for men and 60 meters for women. For teenagers under 18, the distance equals four meters for each year of the boy’s age and 3 meters for each of the girl’s.

Arrows are usually made from pine wood and had feather fins which help the arrow to reach a distance of 900 meters. Naadam archery also attracts individual archers as well as teams of 8-12 people. Every male archer has forty arrows to shot at each target. The judges dressed in national attire, stand by the targets with hands held up after the arrows have been shot. They praise the best shot in drawing recitative voice. The contests are ac companied by colorful national rites. Before the competition starts you hear the recitative song “uukhai”, calling on the archers to be good marksmen and hit the target.