Naadam In Ulaanbaatar

This week we attended the opening ceremony of the biggest festival in Mongolia which is called the Naadam Festival. Celebrated nationwide the main Naadam is held in the city of Ulaanbaatar.

Naadam is properly known as "Eryn gurvan naadam" after the three so called manly games of wrestling, horse racing and archery which make up the core activities of this national festival. This year is Mongolia's 90 year anniversary of people's revolution and the 805 year anniversary of creation of the Great Mongol State under the Chinggis Khaan. It is also the 2200 year anniversary of the creation of the Hunnu empire well that's  what is being stated when describing Naadam to the Mongolians this year. In past years the Great Mongol State was mentioned, but not the Hunnu empire.

When we where last in Mongolia we attended the opening ceremony so I was interested in seeing if anything had changed and yes it had. It seems a lot more effort had gone into the planning of the entertainment at the ceremony.  It was very colourful and there was a lot of different things going on all at once. As like before the soldiers rode in on horse back into the stadium to deliver the state banners called the "Yoson Kholt Tsagaan Tug" or the "Nine Base White Banners,"these are composed of nine flag poles decorated with white horse tail hairs hanging from a round surface with a flame or fork-like shape on the top. In the past the Nine White Banners was a peacetime emblem used exclusively by the Khans in front of their yurts. The central banner was larger in size than the rest and was placed in the center of the other eight just like what we saw in the stadium.
From dancers to men dressed up in warrior costumes and even the sponsors of the day had people walking around the stadium advertising their companies the open ceremony was quite enjoyable to watch.
Once the ceremony was completed we stayed a little while longer to watch the start of the wrestling.

Soldiers riding to collect the nine white banners

A very large horse head fiddle

The very large Mongolian flag near the stadium

The main gate of the stadium

Ben, Paige and Bernadette enjoying the day

The Mongolian family we met

Paige with a couple of Mongolian children

Paige with Dina and Sam

Men dressed up in costumes

Three of the white banners

The white banners coming into the stadium

The nine white banners

Nine banners being carried on nine white horses

Horse head fiddlers

The great wrestlers honor the white banners