National Festival of Mongolia
Introduction… Bordering the world’s two powerful nations, Russia and China, Mongolia is a country with a long history and unique tradition. Mostly known for the Genghis Khan, Mongolia still embraces its nomadic culture.
Naadam, in other words “Eriin Gurvan Naadam” is the most prestigious of national festivals in Mongolia and is usually held in the month of July throughout the country. Naadam is a Mongolian word for game or competition. It challenges athletes in mainly three types of sports: wrestling, horse racing and archery, and therefore ‘eriin gurvan naadam’ stands for ‘three games of men’. Although its name reflects men, women also participate in the competition, except in wrestling.
Usually each province holds its own naadam on different dates depending on special anniversaries in that year, but National naadam is the biggest of all and is held in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, through 11th -13th of July.
Mongolians celebrated naadam for various reasons. In 1206, after the coronation of the Genghis Khan, nomadic Mongolians used to meet and have fun in the month of rain, in July. This meeting was respected as an important ceremony. .
In the 17th century, due to conflicts within Mongolia’s feudal society, Mongolian empire had weakened and divided into three main sections: Inner, West and Khalkh Mongolia. In 1616, the descendants of the Jin dynasty of China, Manchu, had established the Golden state and began to take over Mongolia. Therefore, with the hope to unite the Khalkh society, in 1639 Mongolians appointed a religious leader of the Khalkh, Zanabazar, and from that year Mongolia began to celebrate naadam annually, under name ‘Danshig naadam’. Thereafter, even though Mongolia was taken over by Manchu people, Danshig naadam was still celebrated until the nation retrieved its Independence in 1911. Naadam was also recognized as a ceremony for performing religious obligations. Around 18th century Mongolians were highly influenced by Buddhism. It was believed that before moving to a new place, people are obliged to soothe the old land and thus ‘Arvan Zasgiin Naadam’ was organized. Since 1772, Mongolians celebrated this festival for 125 times.
In 1922, Mongolia also celebrated Soldier’s Naadam. However, when Mongolia’s last king, Bogd Javzandamba, passed away in 1925, the government of Mongolia approved a decision to celebrate Soldier’s Naadam along with Arvan Zasgiin Naadam on 11th of July every year.
Since then, Mongolians are continuing to celebrate Naadam, noting the important dates in the Mongolian history. In 2016, many anniversaries coincided: 2225 th anniversary of Mongolian governance 810th anniversary of the Great Mongol Empire 105th anniversary of Mongolia’s Independence restoration 95th anniversary of democracy This year as usual, National naadam began in the early morning of July 11 at the Central Stadium of Ulaanbaatar. Each year, the opening ceremony of Naadam starts after the Nine banners of the Great Mongol Empire arrive at the stadium. They are carried by soldiers on horses from the government palace to the Central Stadium. (Nine Base White Banners are poles consisting from horse tail hairs, which were collected from every province of Mongolia. For Mongolians the usage of horse tail is very symbolic because horses are so central to a nomadic lifestyle.) Then, the ceremony is continued by president’s speech and followed by performances, which reflect Mongolian history and culture.
After variety of songs and dances, the wrestling competition begins.
Wrestling…
Wrestling definitely is a major part of Mongolian naadam. In fact, wrestling does not only test strength, but also it challenges wrestler’s prowess, intellect and skill. Each year, the number of wrestlers vary, either 512 or 1024 and depending on the number, the competition takes about 9 to 10 rounds. Usually on the first day only first 2 rounds take place. Mongolian wrestling is very different from any other wrestling. There are no weight or time limits and the competition continues until only 1 wrestler is left. Unlike other wrestling, every wrestler has a helper, called “Zasuul” who holds the wrestler’s hat and motivates him throughout the match. A loser of the match is the wrestler who falls first. Once the wrestler’s body, except his hands or feet touches the ground, he is said to be fallen and is out of the competition. After every round the winner wrestler receives his hat from zasuul and performs an eagle dance around the Nine banners, in Mongolian this act is known as “develt”. If the lost wrestler agrees that he has fallen, he walks under the winner’s arm after loosening his shoulder vests. Mongolian wrestling is also unique of type of reward a winner gets. Wrestling Competition of Naadam is the most honorable one because only in National naadam wrestlers get a chance to alleviate their ranks, in Mongolian known as “Tsol”. Starting from the 5th round special titles are given to winners of each round: those are falcon, hawk, elephant,‘garid’, lion and champion. In Mongolian champion is called ‘Avarga’ and if he wins the second, third and the fourth time, he then becomes Dalai, Dayan and Darkhan Avarga.
Horse racing…
Horses are the most regarded animals in Mongolia because since the ancient times Mongolians relied on them for transport and sustenance.
In Mongolian, horses of each age have specific names: 2 year olds- Daaga 3 year olds- Shudlen 4 year olds- Khyazaalan 5 year olds- Soyolon above 7 and fully grown- Azarga or Ikh nas
Horse racing competition takes place near Ulaanbaatar, in an open field at Hui Doloon Hudag. Although the opening ceremony is held on 11 th of July, some competitions take place prior that date. Based on the age of horses, races are broken down into 6 categories and up to 1000 horses can compete in one race usually 15-30 km in length. Children ages of 5 to 13 are chosen as jockeys and are trained months before the competition.
Archery… 13 th
Mongolians were closely related to archery even before the century. Known for the Great Mongol Empire, in the battle Genghis Khan did not solely rely on horses. Almost all warriors of the empire were wise archers, able to shoot precisely even when their horses speeded up. In the military history, Genghis Khan’s grandson Esungen was the archer who shot the farthest approximately 520m long. Similarly to horse racing, archery also starts earlier than the opening ceremony. Based on the types of bows and targets Mongolian archery is also divided into three: Khalkh, Uriankhai and Buriad. In the competition, both men and women participate, while men stand 75 meters, women stand 65 meters from the target. Unlike wrestling, competitors have no special clothing, but all prefer to wear Mongolian traditional costumes, known as ‘deel’.
The prize of the archery competition is quite alike to that of wrestling. The winners receive grand titles known as ‘mergen’, which translates to marksman or markswoman. Their titles also change depending on the number of times they win: hoshoi mergen, gots mergen, garamgai mergen, dayar duursah mergen and darkhan mergen.
Although alike to other archery, the target of Mongolian archery is completely different, a wall formed from small woven cylinders, known as ‘sur’. Once archers shoot their arrows and hit the wall, they get a point and the judges shout ‘uuhai’, which means hooray.
Naadam is truly the biggest festival of all time. Although National Naadam is only held for 3 days many concerts, shows and events are organized at the same time.
Around Naadam
‘Shagain harvaa’ is respected as the 4th game in Mongolian naadam. Even though it is one type of archery, it does not require either an arrow or a bow. But instead people slide a square shaped wood on a flat surface to hit a target, which resembles sheep’s ankle bone. Since 2006, Mongolians organized an annual festival to embrace Mongolian traditional costumes ‘Deeltei Mongol Naadam’ at Chingis square . In this festival people compete in many categories, such as the best dressed couple/young participant/foreigner and the best dancing couple. While the participants walk in a parade, the viewers are able to enjoy national folk music, cultural performances and a runway of national costumes.
Although people may eat whatever they want to, it has become a ritual that during Naadam most people only eat one of Mongolia’s traditional food known as ‘khuushuur’. It is a kind of meat pastry made of ground beef/mutton, onion, garlic, salt, spices and flour.