Naadam, which means entertainment in Mongol, is the biggest and foremost traditional festival of Mongolian people. It falls on the fourth day of June in Chinese lunar calendar, usually occurring in July. It is believed to be fixed as a holiday by Genghis Khan and have existed for centuries. The origin of Naadam can be traced back to the military parade, sports competition, spiritual gathering and etc in the old days. It is a combination of sports race, entertainment and feast, which perfectly expresses the nomadic culture. The three most popular events are wrestling, archery and horse racing. Rooted in the vast grassland and nomadic culture, Mongolian wrestling is quite different from other wrestling such as no weight, field and time limitation. Mongolian enjoy the horse racing throughout the year but the most exciting one falls in Naadam Festival. In Naadam horse racing, the participating horses are divided into six categories based on their ages. For that jockeys are preferred to be light yet experienced, the jockeys are chose among the children between 5 and 13. Those young jockeys can always bring the audiences the most intense competition. Archery has been practiced by the Mongolian for centuries, which used to be a military exercise for men but now it has become a popular sports with participants in traditional costumes. Now Naadam Festival has been listed as Chinese intangible cultural heritage. The Mongolian people celebrate Naadam Festival in various scales and the largest one is usually sponsored by the provincial government and held in different cities of Inner Mongolia every year.
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