Local Naadam

July 6

During the past couple days, our town celebrated Naadam, one of Mongolia's biggest holidays. (I'll try not to blow your mind, but the first day of Naadam was happening at the same time as your July 4th due to the 13 hour time difference. We did celebrate July 4th the day before, which to you would have been July 3rd) One of the traditions here is to get new clothes for the event. Each of our families got us Americans a dell to wear as well. I really like the designs on them and they are very shiny. It was a hot day out, but they were comfortable because they are so light. During Naadam, there was some dancing and music, but the main event is the “three manly sports” - horse racing, wrestling, and archery. It was kind of difficult to watch the horse racing because you had no idea when the riders were near the finish line, and they would already be gone by the time you get to the area where the finish line was. The wrestling was pretty fun to watch. Rules are a little different, if your elbow, knee, or back touch the ground, you lose the match. For archery, the target is a bunch of rocks lined up on the ground. They actually let me try firing an arrow, but it didn't end well. The popular foods for Naadam are hushur and airag. If you ever go to Mongolia, you should try some hushur. They are kind of like deep fried tacos with just meat. Airag is fermented mare's milk. Its strange, but I'll probably get used to it over time.

Some of the people at Naadam were dressed up, but it seemed like most of the people were wearing regular clothes. I found that funny since all of the Americans were wearing dells. On the first night there was a big dance concert afterwords. It was a good time, but I felt awkward because I don't know how to dance. I'm sure some people had a similar thought that I had about them not wearing their traditional clothes when they knew more about modern dancing than one of the Americans. I realized that it really didn't matter whether I am good at it or not because its just for fun. I think it was a good way for us to interact with Mongolians without having to deal with the language barrier problem. Mongolians really like modern music and were glad to have us Americans party with them.