Nadaam

Nadaam: How Mongolians combine the Renaissance Faire and the County Fair with the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day all in one week to celebrate their 1921 independence from China.

Local Nadaam shuts down towns for a week while everyone attends events at the local sport facility and countryside to watch the “three manly sports”: Wrestling, Archery and Horse racing. National Nadaam happens in the capital city during the weekend and everyone stays home to watch the events on TV. It’s a time for families to get together, so we spent one day at Leslie’s house and one at Nathan’s. Competitors and, traditionally, observers dress in traditional attire. Nathan’s host mom surprised him with a brand new, handmade цамц (dress shirt, pr. tsahmts).

Nathan, the all-American kid, drinking his Coke with a smile in his brand new, traditional traditional Mongolian dress shirt. (Big thanks to Amber Barger for taking this.)

Families usually slaughter and a sheep and enjoy it in various dishes throughout the week. they also tend to celebrate heavily with ceremonial shots of vodka, airag (fermented mare’s milk) and by drinking beer.

The most popular event is wrestling, though especially if you don’t know any of the wrestlers, it’s not a very exciting sport like WWE or Olympic wrestling. As many as four matches go on simultaneously and the first one to touch more than a hand or foot to the ground is out. No points. No pins. No weight classes.

No weight classes in Mongolian wrestling.

Wrestlers approach the referee, and hold their arms out like and eagle and dance the motion of flight. The winner comes to the front and repeats the dance after the match has ended. Most matches last at least a minute or more. When you know the wrestler, you really you hope he stays up at least a minute. Even if he doesn’t you’re glad you recorded his 18 seconds of glory.

Our friend Trip Edington wrestling at his first Nadaam. Note the Mongolian officials laughing at the red-headed “Ginger kid” from Alabama doing the traditional Mongolian eagle move before his match.

Trip, “the Ginger Kid”, Edington’s 18 seconds of glory.

The second event is horse racing. This involves several races with an approximate 30 km (shorter for younger tykes) path where competitors are broken down by age, which are mostly children and mostly without saddles.

We call this shot "horses asses."

The final sporting event is archery, though it is not as popular as the other two and can be left out of the celebration in smaller aimag centers (providence capitals). Though the archery is not a must see event, we were sure not to miss Naadam’s true must have: HUUSHUUR (хуушуур, pr: “Hoe-shure”). In fact, we must have eaten our weight in the meat-stuffed, fried bread pocket delight. As Leslie’s host mom told us, it wouldn’t be Nadaam without huushuur.

See? Renaissance Faire, County Fair, Super Bowl, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day all in one! What a great holiday!