Celebrity(Naadam)

My favourite celebrity

  

The national holiday of Mongolia - the Naadam is Mongolia’s summer holiday.  Normally we celebrate this event on July the 11th through to the 13th.

The best ceremony is bringing out the banners and they start away usually in the government house. There is one big banner and 8 smaller ones. They are taken from the government house and taken to the stadium for all the celebrations. The brass band is played when the banners are taken to the stadium. That’s really, really thrilling music that’s when you are bringing out the banners and soldiers riding the horses looking great on the white horses.
      During the Naadam national holiday, we enjoy the “Three manly games”, which are wrestling, horse racing and archery. So during the celebration at the stadium, we have 512 wrestlers this year. If they do not reach any conclusion, they are forced to choose what type of wrestling they prefer to achieve a result. Usually two wrestlers who have 8 wins each compete for the main prize of the holiday. And they go round the banners which are installed in the center of the stadium and then they go back and stay in two lines facing each other. From both sides trainers sing a kind of song saying all the titles of the wrestlers standing at the head of the lines and then they say that the wrestlers from each of the lines invite the opponents for a bout.
There are 2 venues of the national holiday celebration. One is the stadium and the other is Hui 7 Hudag, where the horses are and there were thousands of people and hundreds and hundreds of horses there. Usually little children ride racehorses. You see 5 and 6 year old children on top of Mongolian horses. Mongolian horses are small but children look very tiny on top of those horses.
       Horses race in 6 age categories over different distances. The rules have been changed significantly. So riders must be now 7 or older and no communication facilities are allowed as mobile phones, so as to give directions or advice to horse riding children. It is also mandatory to have a saddle and protection for chest and knee of children jockeys. Riders must be ensured against accident and have parental permission. Also titles were given to children jockeys and songs of praise are sung to both the winner horse-trainers and horse-riders.