The most important celebration for Mongolian people since ancient times is the traditional three manly sports (naadam). During this important celebration there is wrestling among men, which tests men’s strength and wit. Archery tests the skills of marksmanship. The horse race tests the racers’ swiftness and hardiness. They are performed according to the customary rules. The wrestlers are garbed in sporting uniform. The archers are garbed in specific dress. The manes and tails of racing horses are fastened together with strips as decorations. There are certain numbers of ceremonial movements. Every sportive feat is eulogized. These are rooted in very ancient traditions. Every winner in wrestling, archery, and horse-racing has titles and epithets.

Mongolia 2010

A traditional kind of sport, playing and shutting with bow. Competition of bow shutting is held in the Navruz, Mehrgan and other national celebrations.

Shootting game. Children divide in to two groups and one group hides behind of walls, trees and etc., but other group players will find them and shoot with handmade stick gun.

The Lang Suong Temple Festival is held at Lang Suong Temple, Trung Nghia Commune, Thanh Thuy District, Phu Tho Province; on the birthday of Duc Thanh Tan, January 15. In addition to the main festival, the Lang Suong Temple Festival is also held on the death anniversary of the Holy Mother on October 25 (lunar calendar). On the morning of January 15, the hamlets carry the offerings to the temple and gather into a procession of the commune, marching from the temple to the Da River with the purpose of taking Da River water to perform the ceremony and welcoming the adoptive mother of Thanh Tan from Ba Vi to attend the birthday party of the Saint. The community organizes a unique "water procession" ceremony with hem customs such as kite flying, abstaining from calling "hanh". They also organize the Saint procession, the army running game, the cow sacrifice ceremony in the form of a folk performance. The performance process here is both a performance of the legend of Tan Vien such as the Saint procession, the army running game, the cow sacrifice ceremony... and carries the meaning of agricultural beliefs such as the "water procession" to the temple. The offerings to the gods include raw pork, grilled beef, wild chicken, sticky rice, boiled liver, grilled meat, stewed meatballs, and bamboo-tube rice, reminiscent of the simple cooking methods of the Van Lang - Au Lac people. During the festival, there is a phenomenon of looking at "the wind blowing the flags" to recognize that the saints and gods have "returned" to the community. In addition, there are many cultural and artistic activities, folk entertainment games such as: Tug of war, volleyball, crossbow shooting, cockfighting, fire pulling and rice cooking competitions, throwing balls... Lang Suong Temple Festival is an affirmation and continuation of the preservation and promotion of the role of the cultural hero - Duc Thanh Tan Vien Son - formed in the early period of Vietnamese culture and civilization. With its unique spiritual values, Lang Suong Temple Festival was included in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2018.

Vồng Communal House Festival is a "two-term spring-autumn festival" (January 15 and September 9, 10, 11). The main day of the festival is the full moon day of the first lunar month, held at Đình Vồng relic complex, Song Vân commune, Tân Yên district, Bắc Giang province, to commemorate the merits of Saint Cao Sơn - Qúy Minh and 18 dukes of the Dương family, Mạc dynasty. On the 15th, the Saint's ordained procession is organized to the communal house. At the head of the procession is a person playing a minister. When the procession arrives at the communal house, a ceremony is held. The custom of offering a horse to carry the duke's color to the communal house to worship together is a special ritual. Vồng Communal Horse Sacrifice Ceremony: In the past, during the horse sacrifice ceremony, the knights rode 8 white horses at a leisurely and beautiful trot; Today, the organizing committee prepares 8 horses' heads (woven from bamboo, decorated with colored paper) for 8 young people to wear while running. The sowing ceremony to pray for good fortune is held in front of the communal houseyard. After the ceremony, the referee raised the ball high and commanded the boys with the East and West stripes to start the battle. After the offerings, there is an incense offering ceremony by the people in the village and visitors. The festival has many traditional games, attracting a large number of participants and ancient ones such as wrestling, martial arts dancing, horse racing, archery, crossbow shooting, fighting, cockfighting, kite flying, rice blowing competition, and word running, etc. These are all games that demonstrate the martial spirit and seasonal characteristics of agricultural residents.

Trường Yên Festival is also known as Tràng An Festival, Hoa Lư Festival, held on the 10th day of the third lunar month, to commemorate King Đinh Tiên Hoàng's efforts to quell the rebellion of 12 Warlords, establish the country, and efforts to defeat foreign invaders of King Lê Đại Hành. The ceremony includes rituals: temple opening ceremony (King Đinh temple, King Lê temple), water procession ceremony (in the middle of Hoàng Long river), incense offering ceremony (King Đinh temple, King Lê temple), fire procession (procession from Đinh Tiên Hoàng temple in Gia Phương commune, Gia Viễn district to King Đinh temple in Trường Yên commune), Mộc Dục ceremony (using water from the Hoàng Long River in the water procession ceremony), offering ceremony (three students - buffalo, goats, and pigs), palanquin processions (pavilions and temples worshiping generals of the Đinh and Lê dynasties carrying palanquins to worship the king), sacrificial ceremonies (nine song offerings and female mandarin offerings) and flower lantern festivals (monks and Buddhas). Prince releases lanterns on Sào Khê River, praying for peace and prosperity. The festival has interesting folk games such as reed chess exercises, boat racing, stick dancing, human chess, word formation, shuttlecock throwing, cheo singing competitions, wrestling, cursive script writing, gong performances, stilt walking, array fighting, crossbow shooting, etc. Among them, the performances "Reed Flag Exercise" and "Thái Bình Scrabble" are the most special, recreating the childhood and illustrious career of Emperor Đinh Tiên.

The Lồng Tồng Festival of the Tay people in Van Ban district, Lao Cai province is a festival held in early spring (January) to pray for favorable weather, good crops, bountiful harvests, and a prosperous life. " Lồng Tồng Festival" is often called "Going to the fields" and is a festival that brings together the most typical cultural nuances of the Tay ethnic group. Each family prepares a tray of offerings according to their conditions to offer to the gods. Traditional dishes such as banh chung, banh giay, che lam, banh bong... On each tray there is a colorful flower-shaped cake. Each tray also has two pairs of con fruits made of colored fabric, stuffed with sand and cotton, with colorful tassels. The festival is held in the best and largest rice fields. The ceremony includes solemn rituals: water procession, worshiping the village god, the stream god, the mountain god, worshiping the con tree, rituals to invite the gods, blessing ceremony, and going to the fields by the Taoists. During the festival, there are folk games: tug of war, throwing con, cockfighting with banana flowers, buffalo fighting with bamboo shoots, xoe dance, love song, stick pushing, bamboo pole jumping, swallow fighting, playing with quick fruits, plowing competition, sack jumping, crossbow shooting, sword and wooden dance... The Lồng Tồng Festival expresses respect and gratitude to the gods of the forest, mountains, sky, earth, and village, and wishes for a prosperous life. The festival is imbued with the identity of the indigenous Tay people, reflecting the wishes for a good harvest, healthy people, and many descendants.

At its inception, this festival takes place on the 5th of first lunar month in commemoration of Hoàng Hoa Thám, also known as Đề Thám (Commander Thám), the farmer leader in the Yên Thế uprising against the French colonists. Since 1984, the festival has taken place in the third week of March. Main ceremonies of the festival include the palanquin procession ritual by Phồn Xương and Cầu Gỗ villages. An important ritual is the requiem of lost insurgent soldiers with traditional offerings. There are also strict rules on costumes for those who participate in the rituals. A flag salute ceremonies is re-enacted as it was conducted by the insurgent army in the past. Today, in order to make the festival more joyful, villagers incorporate a horse procession ritual and an exchange performance “Young men from Cầu Vồng and Yên Thế villages meet with young ladies from Nội Duệ and Cầu Lim”. Entertainment activities of the festival include such folk performances as martial art performance, gun shooting and archery contests, wrestling and quiz game about the Yên Thế Uprising.

‘Salbuurun’ is a complex hunting game with golden eagles, ‘taigan’ dogs (the Kyrgyz breed of greyhounds) and bow. In the modern salbuurun, golden eagles participate in two exercises: ‘chyrga’ and ‘ondok’. In the first exercise, each berkutchi (eagle master) lets his eagle flying towards moulage, which is entailed by a galloping rider. The eagle has to reach and grasp it. Here, time and speed of the golden eagle are estimated. The golden eagle is seated at a distance of 200 meters in ‘ondok’ exercise. At the judge’s signal, the hunter holloes his eagle holding bait in his hands. Here, the arrival time of the eagle to his owner’s hand is estimated. ‘Taigan zharysh’ is a race organized for the greyhounds. Dog’s agility is determined by the speed of its run at a distance of 350 meters. Dogs chase the moulages that is entailed by the horse rider. ‘Zhaa atuu’ is shooting with a traditional bow (archery).

Melodies associated with herding of animals, coaxing rituals for baby animals and hunting are the common representatives of this element. Such intonations and melodies derived from the nomadic people’s mode of life are classified as melodies for animals such as gurii gurii for horses, oov oov for cows, toor toor for camels, and melodies for coaxing animals, melodies for milking the mother animals such as toig toigoo for coaxing baby sheep, for baby goat as cheeg cheeg, and for baby camel saying melody khoos khoos. There are also other melodies for hunting (melodies to call games, melodies to amuse games), melodies for uukhai or cheering up (uukhai for archery, uukhai for anklebone shooting, melodies for wrestler or race-horse title recitations, giingoo or zeengoo melodies of the horse-jockeys) are used for daily life of Mongolians. This the specific rite of psychological connection between herder and animals.

In the culture of Mongolians, some of the bones of the animals are used and respected in the worship, ritual and traditional games. The anklebone of animals is one of these respected bones. Since Mongols have domesticated the livestock animals, they have created the culture of the anklebone as well. There are about 120 variations of anklebone games, such as “Horse race”, “Milking mare”, “Catching anklebones”, “Anklebone guessing”, “Flick anklebones”, “Throwing a khomboroo”, “Set four difficult”, “Birth of Camel”, “Multicoloured turtle”, “Anklebone shooting”, and so on. Playing games with anklebone is helpful to the nurture of children, and it gives them a chance to check their speed and sight, and let them recognize the appearance, age and sex of animal, and to learn the insight to love and protect animals, and to develop their language and mentality. Additionally, this game has an effective influence to the growth of creative and nurtured person through mother language, folk literature and folklore.

Beginning on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, people of several ethnic groups throughout China and the world celebrate the Dragon Boat festival, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The festivities vary from region to region, but they usually share several features. A memorial ceremony offering sacrifices to a local hero is combined with sporting events such as dragon races, dragon boating and willow shooting; feasts of rice dumplings, eggs and ruby sulphur wine; and folk entertainments including opera, song and unicorn dances.

China 2009