NAADAM FESTIVAL

2023-04-06

Mongolian National Festival Naadam is celebrated on 11-13th July. Horse racing, wrestling and archery are the main competitions of the festival. The opening ceremony takes place on 11th July and showcases different periods of Mongolian history.  
 
Wrestling - 512 or 1024 wrestlers meet in a single-elimination tournament that lasts nine or ten rounds. Mongolian traditional wrestling is an untimed competition in which wrestlers lose if they touch the ground with any part of their body other than their feet or hands.
 
Horse racing - Mongolian horse racing as featured in Naadam is a cross-country event, with races 15-30 km long depending on the horse’s age. There are six age groups.  
 
Archery - It is played by teams of ten. Each archer is given four arrows and the team must hit 33 "surs" targets. Men shoot their arrows from 75 meters away while women shoot theirs from 65 meters away. Traditionally archers wear national dress (Deel) with hat and shoes during the competition. The winners of the contest are granted the titles of "national marksman" and "national markswoman".