Caihan Naadarai!!!

While we melt in the summer heat, may we bid you a belated Caihan Naadarai!!! Using the English alphabet, this is the closest we can get to wishing a great Naadam holiday to you. We experienced our first Naadam, one of the biggest holidays/festivals here. The word, Naadam, derives from the word “naad,” meaning play or rejoice. The festival is an Olympiad of sorts, featuring the “three manly games:” wrestling, archery and horse racing. These games, originating long before Chinggis Khan’s reign in the 1200s, were originally contests of warriors’ skills. The games are held annually in July and span 3 days. Despite being referred to as “manly” sports, women are allowed to compete in archery and horse racing.

Mongolian wrestling is at least as old as the 3rd century B.C. There are no weight classes. It was not surprising to learn that with the hundreds of takedown moves available, the larger man does not always win. The loser in a bout is determined when any body part other than his feet or palms of his hands touch the ground. In the national games in Ulaanbaatar, the field started with 512 wrestlers in a single-elimination tournament. Our Sukhbaater Nadaam began with a field of 256.

The Naadam archers are skilled at hitting targets from great distances. The men take aim from 75 meters away with the women finding the mark from 60 meters. The target is interesting. The archery officials set up a small wall on the ground composed of small cylinders having cork cores and braided leather strap coverings. These cylinders are stacked creating a wall 50 centimeters high and 4 meters long. An archer’s rubber tipped arrow must hit the wall to score. The 6-8 judges for the Sukhbaatar Naadam would wave their arms and sing a brief song to explain a shot’s accuracy.

The horse racing is impressive, but challenging to fully appreciate because the jockeys run a 15-30 kilometer course laid out across open land guided by signs. There are no tracks. There are six age classes of horses and children as young as five run the fast ones because of the kids’ smaller size. The top five finishers are honored with airag (fermented mares’ milk) and the crowd sings songs in praise of the winners. In classic Mongolian fashion, a special song of engouragement is reserved for the last place finisher as well.

Food, and LOTS of it, are a feature of every festival. A standard for Naadam are meat and/or potato hoshers. These are deep fried “hot pockets” filled with minced meat, potatoes, onions and spices. They are simply delicious!!!

The games and big party were lots of fun and we’re looking forward to sharing the experience with those who are lucky enough to visit us here in the future.