Mongolia’s festivals celebrate the skills of the steppe — wrestling, horse racing and archery at Naadam in July, and the Kazakh eagle hunters of the Altai in October.
Photo: Gabideen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The three games of Naadam — wrestling, horse racing and archery — are recorded in the thirteenth-century Secret History of the Mongols, and the festival is the most widely watched in the country; UNESCO inscribed it on its Representative List in 2010. The National Naadam in Ulaanbaatar is held from 11 to 13 July, and local naadams follow across the country through July and August.
In the far west, the Kazakh communities of Bayan-Ölgii keep the tradition of hunting with golden eagles, celebrated at eagle festivals in September and October.
Бүркіт той
In Mongolia’s far west, Kazakh eagle hunters in fur hats ride out with golden eagles on their arms to compete — calling their birds down from the hills to the glove, showing off their horsemanship and traditional dress on the steppe outside Ölgii.
October 3 – 4, 2026Estimated
Наадам
Every July Mongolia stops for the “three games of men” — wrestling, cross-country horse racing ridden by children, and archery — opened in Ulaanbaatar’s stadium with parades of riders, dancers and the nine horse-tail banners of Genghis Khan.
July 11 – 13, 2027Calculated