The most important celebration for the Mongolian people since ancient times was and are the traditional three manly sports (Naadam).
During this important celebration, there is wrestling among men, which tests men's strength and wit. Archery tests the skills of marksmanship. The horse race tests the racers' swiftness and hardiness. They are performed according to customary rules.
The Three Manly Sports combine folk art with sportiveness. Therefore, the wrestlers are garbed in sporting uniforms. The archers are garbed in a specific dress. The manes and tails of racing horses are fastened together with strips as decorations. There is a certain number of ceremonial movements. Every sportive feat is eulogized. These are rooted in very ancient traditions. Every wrestling, archery, and horse racing winner has titles and epithets. This national festival has been developed for many centuries, but its form and content are almost intact.
There are no special requirements for participants who want to take a part in wrestling, archery, and horse racing. Participation is free of choice. This demonstrates its democratic nature and the aspiration of the Mongolian population.
Even though there are various social functions of the Three Manly Sports, including ceremonies, symbolism, merry-making, and sports, the main aim of this competition is to test men's prowess, make all people merry, and manifest the power of nation and state.
Thus, this festival has a national significance. This festival was called the ulsiin naadam (festival of statehood) or danshig (festival of firm existence). This is sometimes called delger diiüren gurvan züiliin naadam (festival of three objects of immeasurable fullness). There are small community festivals of horse racing, wrestling, and archery when the mountain and its cairn worship rituals are performed, along with the celebration of rituals for the new ger, birthdays, and so on,
The Three Manly Sports were performed during mountain and river worship rituals, weddings, periods of war, and periods of the ascendancy of the moon. But the Three Manly Sports are celebrated in summer when the land is verdant, the animals are fatty, the milk products are abundant, and all the people are calm.
The Victory Day of the People's Revolution has been celebrated every July 11th of each year since 1921. It became an annual nationwide celebration. As a national event, it fits the mood of the populace of Mongolia. This is the enrichment of the national festival and enhancement of the political ceremony.
The tenor of the Three Manly Sports is the same, but it is enriched with the traditional sport of archery with anklebones and other competitions as well as diverse events of modern sports, including exhibitions and shows of national costumes, demonstrations of Mongolian ger construction, and others.
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