The eternal blue sky blesses the earth with a turquoise green carpet, marking the start of Naadam festival. Everyone is excited and preparing for this occasion, especially their clothes. Naadam is one of the most important festival of Mongol Nations. The whole nation comes together to watch and enjoy the “Three manly games” which are archery, horse racing and wrestling.

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A popular garment during this festival is the Deel.  Deel is traditional clothing. It is safe to say that Deel is an essential part of Mongolian culture. The deel culture invented many kinds of clothing designs. Mongolians love to embellish themselves, so they use the best materials for their clothes. Over time, Mongolians added meaning and decorations to our clothing. From boots to hat, everything is hemmed and heavily decorated with patterns that have a deep meaning behind them. Just wearing a deel, does not make you a proud Mongolian. Understanding the meaning behind each pattern can make you of what you are wearing. This tradition of putting a meaning behind each pattern is an integral part of many cultures.

A hat represent leadership of nation for it is a headwear.

A deel represents government organizations, for it protects its owner. Someone who is not aware of Mongolian culture might not understand this. They say that both hat and “deel” are symbols of a flourishing nation. That is why a new deel is precious. Mongolians have a long standing tradition of respecting their leadership as well as their clothing. Our traditional clothing is for daily use as well as statement of cultural art that is considered an essential part of Mongolian culture and tradition. Respect for their government, daily routine of the nomads, religion and tradition are all interwoven in our traditional clothing. Everyone wore their deel with the utmost respect ever since it was invented, be it a poor herder or a king. From this we can see that the Mongolian clothing culture has developed for centuries. Even today, artists make new modern designs. The deel culture was highly developed during the Yuan dynasty. Designs made by Mongolian consorts were astonishing to say the least, but nowadays, they are often mistaken for Chinese style designs. Archeological findings are proved that design is not Chinese, but it is Mongolian. Mongolian queens made many different kinds of formal hats and deel as designers for their time. For example; Chinbai who was consort of Khubilai Khan designed the brimmed hat for the nobles.