Important Traditional Festivals and Customs of Mongolians

1. Sacrifice of Ao Bao (13th of April or 13th of July in the lunar calendar)

On this day, Mongolian men, women and children, in groups, with sheep and wine, march to the Ao Bao (a round pile of earth and stone about 8 feet high), offer a khada, burn incense and paper, and lead livestock, and then meet near the Ao Bao to have a picnic, and then go back to the house with great joy and the intention of praying for good luck and avoiding calamities. Then, the lamas burned incense and lamps, chanting mantras, begging for divine blessings, the masses from left to right around the Ovoo three times, hoping to usher in a good year of pastoralism.

2, Naadam Assembly (the fourth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar)

Every year, the fourth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar to start the five-day Naadam, is the Mongolian people's event. The content of Naadam Assembly mainly includes wrestling, horse racing, archery, horse lassoing, playing Mongolian chess and other traditional ethnic programs, and in some places there are track and field, tug-of-war, basketball and other sports programs.

This is the people in order to celebrate the harvest and held a sports and recreation conference. "Naadam", the meaning of the Mongolian language is entertainment or games. "Naadam" on the General Assembly of the thrilling and moving horse racing, wrestling, archery is appreciated, there is a strong fight to win the game of chess, there are fascinating songs and dances.

"Naadam" conference is also agricultural and animal husbandry materials trade fair. In addition to industrial and agricultural by-products, there are national characteristics of food and drink, such as beef and mutton and its smoked dried products, cheese, dried milk, cream, milk lumps, milk tofu, yogurt.

3, the temple fair (May 13 to 17 on the lunar calendar every year)

Celebration of Lamaism Gelugpa Enthronement Festival. At that time, hundreds of miles around the Mongolian people, dressed in brightly colored national costumes, old and young, or horseback, or car, or walking, gathered on the Mei Dai Zhaoshan Shi Shi, to catch the meeting. Temple fair began, first by Naiqiong pressure evil; then jump Chama dance, commonly known as jumping ghosts; there are lamas in the Maharishi Temple chanting, Buddha by flower wood wheel yellow satin tent sedan in the city wall around the temple week, give the people of the content of the blessings and so on. After the founding of New China, the above temples gradually eliminate superstitious content, add sightseeing, material exchanges, cultural and artistic performances and other activities.

4, Horse Milk Festival (the end of the eighth month of the lunar calendar)

At the end of the eighth month of the lunar calendar every year, the Mongolian people to hold a one-day Horse Milk Festival. This festival is a traditional Mongolian festival, which is common in the Xilingol grasslands of Inner Mongolia. In this harvest season, the herdsmen wish for health, happiness, good luck and prosperity of people and animals, so they name this festival after the white horse's milk. In order to celebrate the harvest, each other's blessings, in addition to preparing enough horse milk wine, but also to "hand-picked meat" hospitality, and held horse racing activities, folk singers to sing a toast to the old Mongolian doctor offerings and so on.

5, Lighting Festival (October 25, Lunar Calendar)

Lighting Festival Mongolia called "Zule", the festival in the lunar calendar on October 25, is a small-scale religious festivals. It is said to honor Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Yellow Religion. On this day, at dusk, every family sets up a wooden frame on a high slope and puts on a homemade lamp, the wick of which is made of hyacinth. The amount of hyacinth is determined by the age of each person, and the hyacinth head is wrapped with cotton or wool coated with butter or suet. After people light the lamp, they turn around three times from left to right (if there is a lama, the lama will lead them to do it), and then they sprinkle wine to offer to the sky and kowtow to the Buddha to pray for his blessing of long life and peace. Inside each yurt, there are small oil lamps made of dough, which are lit throughout the night, symbolizing that the world is always bright and people live long lives.

6, Fire Festival (Lunar December 23)

The custom of fire festival is a Mongolian custom since ancient times, which is a prelude to the lunar year. Before the fire festival begins, the whole family goes to the courtyard (or in front of the fire pit or stove), and the officiating person (the elder of the family) first sets up offerings and burns incense. Then take a bundle of firewood and light it, put butter, white wine, meat (beef and mutton) and other offerings into the fire, led by the elders, the whole family kowtow to the fire.

The officiating priest also prayed that: the year Shen thanks to the blessing of the God of Fire, some unclean things thrown into the fire, please forgive the God of Fire, blessing the next year's grain harvest, people and animals two prosperous, auspicious and happy. Worship of fire is an ancient tradition of the Mongolian people. In the view of Mongolians, fire is sacred. A family's fire festival has the meaning of succession, and it is necessary to hold a wedding event and New Year's Day to offer fire. Around the fire bowl, stove, with a series of rituals and taboos.

7, other festivals

There are many other traditional festivals of the Mongols, including: the Mongolian New Year, Maidol Festival, Taklikan Festival and so on. There are a wealth of festivals to celebrate the rituals and festivals with cultural connotations, involving all areas, including all aspects.

Important Traditional Festivals and Customs of Mongolians

White Festival

Mongolians used to call the Spring Festival "White Festival", and nowadays, the first month of the Lunar Calendar is called "White Moon". This is because the Mongolians worship the white color. The "White Festival" is the biggest festival of the year. The time of the festival coincides with the Spring Festival. Lights are kept on around the clock, ancestors are worshipped before dinner, and then the whole family ****s in for dinner, and it is customary to eat and drink a lot, and the more meat and wine left over, the better. This symbolizes the new year rich. New Year's Eve, the younger generation to the elders to honor the "New Year's Eve wine".

After dinner, held chess, storytelling, dancing and other activities. On the morning of the first day of the year, get up early, put the offering table and offerings outside the door, kowtow to the direction of the sunrise and worship the sky. Afterwards, they return to the house to offer incense and kowtow to the statue of the enshrined God and Buddha. Children perform the New Year's salute to their parents and elders. After all this is done, the children are seated according to their age and drink tea and toast. After eating the New Year's meal, dressed in festive attire, straddling the horse, three to five groups of friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year.

Naadam

It is the biggest festival in Mongolia. The word "Naadam" is the phonetic translation of the Mongolian language, which means "games and entertainment". The "Naadam" conference is usually held in July and August of the lunar calendar. At this time, the herdsmen, men and women, young and old, all put on the festival dress, riding horses and carts from all directions. At the congress, traditional sports competitions such as archery, wrestling and horse racing, known as the "Three Arts of Men", are held. In addition, there are various chess competitions and a variety of songs and dances. "Naadam", generally five to seven days.

"Naadam" originated in the early thirteenth century, at that time, "Naadam" is the main program is to carry out archery, wrestling, horse racing. Today's "Naadam" has increased material exchanges, cultural performances and many other new content. Make this traditional national event, more festive, auspicious, joyful and effective. Wrestling is the main content of Naadam, no wrestling can not be called Naadam. Wrestlers can be more or less, up to more than 1,000 people, and not subject to regional and weight restrictions.

Mongolians in the history of the very important "Darhan wrestlers", which is a lifelong honor. In the ceremony to award the honorary title, the wrestler who was awarded the title of "Darhan", put on a full set of costumes for the competition, three singing wrestling song after jumping into the arena to perform. By presiding over the leaders of Naadam issued medals, certificates and souvenirs, and in accordance with national custom to invite him to drink a bowl of milk wine and fresh milk. At this time, the "Darhan" who selected one of the most promising wrestlers, to take off their wrestling clothes to give him, voluntarily as an amateur coach, and then embraced each other, jumped out of the arena together.