The Nadaam festival is the biggest event of the year for Mongolians. It occurs annually on July 11-13 in all parts of the country and highlights Mongolia's most popular sports: wrestling, horse racing and archery. The word Naadam means game or competition in Mongolian. Competitions take place on the first two days and merry-making is reserved for the third. This festival has been held for centuries as a form of memorial celebration, as an annual sacrificial ritual honoring various mountain gods or to celebrate a community endeavor. Wrestling The wrestling competitions begin after a colorful opening ceremony in the morning on the first day of the festival and end on the second day. The biggest wrestling competitions involve 512 wrestlers and have 8 rounds. The Mongolian wrestling has no weight divisions and no time limits. A small wrestler can be pitted against someone two times his weight. A trick is the key to win in the Mongolian wrestling. The loser of a match is the wrestler who falls first. A fall is when any part of a wrestler’s body, except his hands or feet, touches the ground.
Titles are given to winners of a number of rounds: Falcon to those winning five rounds, Elephant for seven rounds, and Lion to the one winning the whole tournament. When a titled wrestler wins two years in a row he becomes an Avarga, or Titan.
Wrestlers honor the judges and their attendants with a dance called devekh, or winging dance. The winner also performs the winging dance after the loser of the bout takes off his jacket and walks under the winner's arm. Wrestlers wear small, over the shoulder vests called zodog, and snug shorts called shuudag. The heavy, traditional Mongolian boots are called gutal. Horse racing Mongolians have a high regard for horses since, for centuries, they have relied on them for transport, sustenance, and companionship. During the races, up to 1,000 horses can be chosen to compete for each category. The horse races are broken  down into six categories based on the age of the horses. For example, two-year-old horses race for 10 miles (16 kilometers) and seven-year-olds for 17 miles (30 kilometers). The race is conducted on the open grasslands with no set track or course. Boys and girls from the ages of 5 to 13 are chosen as jockeys since this guarantees that the race tests the horses’ skill and not the riders.
The small size of the jockeys also increases the horses' endurance. Even still, jockeys train for months before Naadam and the horses are given a special diet. The winning jockey is praised with the title Tumnii Ekh or "leader of ten thousand" and the five winning horses are talked about and revered in poetry and music. The losing two-year-old horse is also allotted special attention by being serenaded with a song. Music is very important before the race too, as the audience sings traditional songs and the jockeys sing a pre-race song called a gingo. Archery The sport of archery originated around the 11th century, during the time of Khanate warfare. Contestants dress in traditional costumes and use a bent bow constructed of horn, bark, and wood. The arrows, made from willow branches and vulture feathers are shot at round, leather targets with grey, yellow or red rings. Men must stand 75 meters and women 60 meters from the target. Judges, standing near the targets, assess each shot with a cry, called a uukhai, and a raised hand. The winning archer, or mergen, is the one who hits the targets the most times.
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