The Naadam Festival

For my birthday on the 10^th of July, I decide to leave the orphanage camp for a few days to reach Ulaan Bataar in order to enjoy the Naadam and Flag day . 

The whole city is covered with Mongolian flags, cars, shops even people have one drawn of their face.  

Jagaa, the new choice leader is taking me to Ganaa's guesthouse. Many tourist there, but the cool thing about it is that you are actually sleeping in a Ger. Once there, he gives me my tickets to enter the stadium and the phone number of other volunteers so i won't be always on my own.

From the 11^th to the 13^th of July UB is hosting one of the biggest event in Mongolia, The Naadam festival.

It mainly consists with 3 games : horse riding, archery, and wrestling.

It is important to bear in mind that the Naadam happening in Ulaan Bataar is the official one. So there will be many people and the competitors are the best of the country. But if you want to discover the Naadam in a more intimate way, I would advise to go away from the city. Indeed each province is going to organize a Naadam of their own like some kind of second division competition. There, You would have a better way to understand the games and to actually have a better explanation from the locals and participate to the celebration.

Mongols are wearing the Dell (traditional outfit) It's amazing to be there surrounded by so much cultural differences, It's actually quite hard to realize. The opening ceremony is amazing. Each province of the country participates to the parade inside the stadium along with their best horses and athletes. A famous rock singer run the show with a song dedicated to Genghis Khan. At the center of the stadium professional dancers are performing and so is the Army at each corner. At some point we realize that Parachutists are falling from the sky aiming in circles for the stadium. The show still goes on even when a group of dancers ends up being covered by them making the whole stadium laughing at the poor performers trying to keep the rhythm under the bag.

Then comes the silence, performers are leaving the place for a group of about fifty horsemen. Around me men are rising as the first notes of the national mongol anthem is heard. They are carrying the white peace flags of Mongolia. They would have been black if the country was at war.

Then comes the president's speech, making obviously no sense to me, but the games can start now.

- To be honest, I must say that wrestling was a bit boring after a few hours, despite the funny looking outfit of the wrestlers. Before each fight the restler are getting ready by doing the eagle dance in front of the peace flags and after a victory as well. It quite a ritual, and I am not sure if I understood everything.

The fight indeed last for the whole three days of the celebration, and as you can imagine, three days of wrestling when it doesn't belong to your culture can turn into a real torture. But I had some time to actually realize that this sport is really a big deal for the Mongolian people. It's like Superbowl or some national soccer competition, I mean people were taking bets and all.

In fact, the wrestling winner is the only competitor that gets the chance to shake hands with the members of the government. When I was asking around me, I would be told that the winner of the Naadam would be considered a Demigod in ancient times.

- Archery has nothing to do with what you would expect. There is not the usual circular target, but lying straight on the ground, a row of cubes made out of hay. Two of those cubes have been painted red, and that's your target. Men, women and children can participate. It's quite amazing to watch five years old hitting their targets every single time.

- About the Horse race I hardly saw anything but a cloud of dust at the start and an arrival under the rain. For that event, I would recommend to get into a four wheel drive so you could actually follow the race live. The horses are ridden by 5 to 8 years old kids in order to increase the speed...

During those few days I also had the time to discover the city. I am planning on spending the month of august there and hopefully find a different activity.