Naadam
See more Festivals. See best of Ulan Bator in Mongolia.
|
More holidays »
Featured Holiday
Naadaam is Mongolia’s largest festival: a traditional Olympics of Manly Sports like archery, horse racing and wrestling. Naadaam has existed in a similar form for centuries and the events held celebrate the kind of warrior skills needed during the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes. The Mongolian Wrestling competition sees 1024 men wrestle it out over ten un-timed rounds to see who can keep their hands off the ground for longest. Though thought of as a manly event, jockeys in the horse races, held over 15 or 30 kms, are between the ages of five and twelve. Naadaam also has less physical games, one of the most traditional is a divination game using sheep ankle bones. There are also parades, musical performances and non competitive demonstrations of skills. Since 1921 Naadaam has been held to commemorate Mongolia’s revolution of independence. It's celebrated though out Mongolia, the largest event held in a huge stadium in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, over the three days from the 11th to the 13th of July.
Review by editor ‘July Festivals’Worldwide festivals in July (Travel article) Read more » ‘Mongolmania’Girlie Men, pass by. Get your arrow quiver and your sheep bones together at the Festival of Manly Sports. Read more »
Review by expert member ‘The other games’By Kevin Rushby for 'The Guardian' First published August 2, 2008 We were all heading for the town of Bulgan, 300km north-west of the capital, ... Read more » Review by press. Have you been here? Why not add your own review or report an error. |
Photo by flickr user John Pannell
«
»
More great holidays » Selected holidays
|
||||||||||||||||||
