Prohibitions play a big role in the life of Khanty and Mansi people. This is especially evident in the attitude to the earth, which cannot even be injured by a sharp object. There were separate areas of land, the shores of some lakes and rivers, which could not be walked on. In extreme cases, it was necessary to tie a birch tree to the sole. Passing or passing by such places, Khanty and Mansi perform certain rites – they make a sacrifice (food, examples of cloth, etc.). Khanty and Mansi performed sacrificial rites at the beginning of fishing, for example, fishing or hunting. During such sacrifices, perfumers, the owners of certain places, were asked to give more harvest in the next season.

Crow day

The crow is one of the first to fly to the North in April, when there is still snow and frost. With her cry, she seems to wake up nature and seems to bring life itself. Probably, that is why the Khanty and Mansi consider this bird to be the patroness of women and children and dedicate a special holiday to it.

The crow’s song, recorded on the Northern Sosva River, contains the following words: “With my appearance, let little girls, little boys be born! I will sit down on a pit with melted rot (from their cradles). I will warm my frozen hands, I will warm my frozen feet. May the girls live long, let the boys live long! According to the customs of the Khanty and Mansi, all belongings of small children must be strictly monitored so that no misfortune happens to the child. This also applies to those items that the baby no longer needs. That’s why rotten soft wood shavings, which were poured into the cradle instead of diapers, were put away after use in a cozy place. The Khanty believed that the crow, having flown in from the south, warms its paws on these warm shavings on cold days and says: “More children came to the ground so that I would have a place to warm my paws.” Previously, only elderly women and girls gathered for the holiday. They prepared treats, among which there must have been a thick porridge called “salamat”. Dancing was an indispensable element of the holiday. Some Khanty and Mansi groups associated this holiday with the ancestral goddess Kaltash, who determined the destinies of people, celebrating themlife path on sacred tags, helped during childbirth. On women’s holidays, which took place in certain places, pieces of cloth were often tied to a tree. The purpose of such holidays was the pursuit of well-being, first of all, the care of children.

Bear holiday

This is the most favorite holiday of the Khanty and Mansi people. The bear is considered the son of the supreme deity Torum, at the same time he is the son of the progenitor woman and the brother of her children, so the Khanty and Mansi perceive him as a brother. And, finally, he is the personification of supreme justice, the master of the taiga. Every successful bear hunt is accompanied by a holiday, in which people try to remove the guilt of killing it and perform rituals that should lead to the well-being of all participants of the holiday. The bear’s skin was rolled up, the head and paws were decorated with rings, ribbons, and handkerchiefs and placed in the front corner of the house in the so-called sacrificial pose, with the head placed between the outstretched front paws. Then they arranged performances in masks. In the first half of the night, dances dedicated to the main gods must be performed. Special significanceit was the middle of the night and its second half, when bear meat was eaten, the bear’s soul was sent to the sky, and predictions were made about the future hunt.

Dolgan customs and holidays.

“Dolgans have such a custom…”

The following lines belong to the famous Dolgan poet Ogdo Aksyonova: “The Dolgans have this custom – to share the first booty. Remember, boy!” In the old days, Dolgans always gave part of the meat of wild deer and caught fish to relatives and neighbors. But the fur was not subject to division. She was valuable. goods for which you could get guns, gunpowder, tea, flour, and sugar from traveling merchants.
Traps for foxes – in Siberia and the Far North they are often called “maws” – were in the personal property of each hunter. Only the person to whom these traps belonged could check the mouths and take away the animals caught in them. There was one more important rule, Associated with fox hunting. If you decide to set your traps south of those set by another hunter, you do not need his permission to do so. But if you want to put pastures north of other people’s traps, you must get the consent of their owner. Why did such a custom arise? Everything is explained very simply: foxes come to the Dolgan lands from the north, and therefore a hunter whose traps face the north has a better chance of success.

The little mistress of the great plague

Debts up to the 19th century. preserved the remains of the matriarchy, although they were related by the male line . Women supported the fire, “fed” it; all household shrines were in their possession. In winter, several Dolgan families, as a rule, united and built a large chum from slanted wooden planks covered with sod for warmth. The residents of the winter house chose a common housekeeper. It was often an elderly woman bent over from hard work. The word of the little hostess was a law for everyone, including the proud and warlike Dolgan men.

Customs and holidays of the Khanty and Mansi
Khanty and Mansi, two closely related Finno-Hungarian peoples in language and culture, live in the north of Western Siberia – in the Tyumen, Tomsk and Sverdlovsk regions. They are often united under the general name “Ob Ugry”, because they are settled by the Ob River and its tributaries. Khanty and Mansi are engaged in hunting and fishing, part of the population are reindeer herders. The Khanty and Mansi lived settled along the rivers or made small movements during the year. Their holidays and rituals reflect the rich experience of human development of northern nature.

Customs related to attitude to nature

Prohibitions play a big role in the life of the Khanty and Mansi people. This is especially evident in the attitude to the earth, which cannot even be injured by a sharp object. There were separate areas of land, the shores of some lakes and rivers, which could not be walked on. In extreme cases, it was necessary to tie a birch tree to the sole. Passing or passing by such places, Khanty and Mansi perform certain rites – they make a sacrifice (food, examples of cloth, etc.). Khanty and Mansi performed sacrificial rites at the beginning of fishing, for example, fishing or hunting. During such sacrifices, perfumers – the owners of certain places, were approached with a request to give more harvest in the next season.

Crow day

The crow is one of the first to fly to the North in April, when there is still snow and frost. With her cry, she seems to wake up nature and seems to bring life itself. Probably, that is why the Khanty and Mansi consider this bird to be the patroness of women and children and dedicate a special holiday to it.
The crow’s song, recorded on the Northern Sosva River, contains the following words: “With my appearance, let little girls, little boys be born! I will sit down on a pit with melted rot (from their cradles). I will warm my frozen hands, I will warm my frozen feet. May the girls live long, let the boys live long! According to the customs of the Khanty and Mansi, all belongings of small children must be strictly monitored so that no misfortune happens to the child. This also applies to those items that the baby no longer needs. That’s why the rots – shavings of soft wood, which were poured into the cradle instead of diapers, were folded after use in a cozy place. The Khanty believed that the crow, having flown in from the south, warms its paws on these warm shavings on cold days and says: “More children came to the ground so that I would have a place to warm my paws.” Previously, only elderly women and girls gathered for the holiday. They prepared treats, among which there must have been a thick porridge called “salamat”. Dancing was an indispensable element of the holiday. Some Khanty and Mansi groups associated this holiday with the progenitor goddess Kaltashcha, who determined people’s destinies, marked their life path on sacred tags, and helped during childbirth. On women’s holidays, which took place in certain places, pieces of cloth were often tied to a tree. The purpose of such holidays was the desire for well-being, first of all – care for children. marking their life path on sacred tags, helped during childbirth. On women’s holidays, which took place in certain places, pieces of cloth were often tied to a tree. The purpose of such holidays was the desire for well-being, first of all – care for children. marking their life path on sacred tags, helped during childbirth. On women’s holidays, which took place in certain places, pieces of cloth were often tied to a tree. The purpose of such holidays was the desire for well-being, first of all – care for children.

Bear holiday

This is the most favorite holiday of the Khanty and Mansi people. The bear is considered the son of the supreme deity Torum, at the same time he is the son of the progenitor woman and the brother of her children, so the Khanty and Mansi perceive him as a brother. And, finally, he is the personification of supreme justice, the master of the taiga. Every successful bear hunt is accompanied by a holiday, in which people try to remove the guilt of killing it and perform rituals that should lead to the well-being of all participants of the holiday. The bear’s skin was rolled up, the head and paws were decorated with rings, ribbons, and handkerchiefs and placed in the front corner of the house in the so-called sacrificial pose, with the head placed between the outstretched front paws. Then they arranged performances in masks. In the first half of the night, dances dedicated to the main gods must be performed. Of particular importance was the middle of the night and its second half,

Customs and holidays of the Nenets, Silkup, Ents and Nganasan
These peoples have a lot in common. The languages ​​of the Nenets and Silkups, Nganasan and Ents belong to the same Samodian group of the Ural-Yukaghir language family . Do-it-yourselfers live in the neighborhood, sometimes in the same villages. Their traditional occupations are similar: all are engaged in reindeer husbandry, hunting, fishing. The number of Samodian peoples is different: Nenets – about 35 thousand, Silkup – 3.5 thousand, Nganasan – 1.3 thousand, and Ents – only 200 people.

The rite of veneration of a deer

There was widespread veneration of various animals, birds, and fish among the self-made people. But, probably, no animal enjoyed such respect as the deer. This is explained by the special role of deer in the life of Samodian tribes. For the Nganasan, the wild deer was the main object of hunting. It was mined, as a rule, in autumn, at water crossings, when reindeer herds moved from the Taimyr tundra to the south, to the Evenki taiga. The Ents also hunted wild deer, but in a different way than the Nganasans. They were helped in this by specially trained domestic deer-manschikas. These deer, with their belts entangled in their horns, were let close to their wild counterparts. The wild deer got into a fight with the uninvited guests and got their horns tangled in the belts.
The cult of deer was especially developed among the Nenets, hereditary reindeer herders, owners of the largest reindeer herds in the self-made world. According to ancient Nenets customs, white deer were considered sacred. They were not harnessed to sledges, they were not slaughtered for meat. The horns and ears of white deer were decorated with red ribbons, the sun sign or the image of the spirit of fire was cut out on the sides. White deer were considered to belong to Num – the supreme deity who created, according to the ideas of self-made people, the earth and all who inhabit it.

The rite of revitalization of a tambourine, or on a deer behind the clouds

An interesting custom related to the veneration of deer existed in the olden days among the Selkups. According to the ancient tradition , it was believed that the shaman’s tambourine is a deer on which the mediator between people and spirits travels to heaven. However, before setting off, the shaman had to “revive” the tambourine. This ceremony took place in the spring, when the birds arrived. The time of the ceremony was not chosen by chance. The Silkups considered birds their closest relatives and often called themselves eagle or grouse people. The ceremony of revitalizing the tambourine lasted for ten days. Its culmination was the shaman’s achievement of the land where seven suns shine, where the stone reaches the sky. Depicting your stay in this magical country, the shaman demonstrated to the audience that he was very hot, that sweat was pouring from him in streams. The rite of reviving the tambourine ended with a general feast and feeding of idols, whose wooden figurines the Selkup considered to be the personification of their ancestors.
According to many ethnographers, the idea of ​​a hot mountainous country, where a shaman would go on his reinvigorated tambourine-reindeer, arose among the Selkups because the self-made tribes came to the North from the southern regions of Siberia, from the Sayano-Altai highlands. In other words, in ancient times, self-made people really lived where there was a lot of sun and “a stone reaches the sky.”

Feast of pure plague

One of the main holidays of the Samoyed peoples was associated with the end of the polar night. It was celebrated at the end of January – beginning of February, when the winter sun reappeared in the sky after a long absence. This holiday was very solemnly celebrated by the northernmost of the self-made people – the Nganasans, who live far beyond the Arctic Circle. For the holiday, a special, “pure plague” was put on, in which a shaman would continuously tamp for several days. At that time, while the shaman’s tambourine sounded, young people, gathered near the “pure chum”, performed ancient dances and arranged games. It was believed that all these actions should ensure good luck in the coming year. Sometimes the holiday took place differently. Instead of “pure plague” a “stone gate” was built. They were something like a tunnel. For three days, the shaman’s butchering continued next to the tunnel,

Customs and holidays of the Evenks
The famous Norwegian Arctic explorer Fritjof Nansen called the Evenks the Indians of Siberia. Indeed, many relate these native inhabitants of Northern Asia to the celebrated beastmen of the Iroquois or Delaware tribe. Like the North American Indians , the Evenks are hereditary hunters, skillful trackers, tireless travelers. Their number is slightly more than 30,000 people. But the Evenks are settled on a huge territory – from Western Siberia to Yakutia, Buryatia, Primorye. The Evenki language belongs to the Tunguso-Manchurian branch of the Altai language family. In the recent past, the Evenks were called Tungus.

How guests were received

The custom of hospitality is known to all peoples of the world. He also strictly followed the Evenks. Many Evenki families had to wander the taiga for a significant part of the year, separated from other families, so the arrival of guests was always a celebration. The guests were given gifts, sat down in the place of honor in the plague (behind the cell, opposite the entrance), were treated to the most delicious dishes , for example, finely chopped bear meat, seasoned with fried bear fat. In the warm season, dances were arranged in honor of the guests’ arrival. They danced on the lawn, not far from the camp. Traditional Evenki dances were extremely temperamental. All residents of the camp took part in them – from small to large.
After a lot of refreshments, exchange of news, dancing, when the day was falling into the evening, one of the guests or hosts would start a leisurely story. The narrator sometimes spoke, then switched to singing, and the listeners repeated the most important words in chorus. The heroes of the story were people, animals, powerful spirits. Such, for example, as “Old Amaka”, in whose hands “are the threads of our lives”, or the heavenly hunter Mangi, who defeated the magical moose Bugada and returned to people the sun stolen by the moose.
All night in the plague, where guests were received, people did not close their eyes: the stories were so long that they usually did not have time to finish them at dawn. The guests stayed in the camp for one more day.

How the world was built

Evenks valued the ability not only to fight, but also to negotiate peace. At first, a squad led by a shaman approached the enemy’s camp and warned with a loud shout of its approach. The enemy expelled parliamentarians – two elderly women. The straps of their boots (fur boots) must be untied. This is a sign that parliamentarians are ready to negotiate. Older women who represent the enemy side enter into a conversation with the elderly women. The shaman defiantly rejected the offers and ordered to prepare for battle. Then the defenders sent two elderly men with untied straps. New negotiations began, which were now conducted among the oldest men. However, an agreement cannot be reached this time either: the shaman sends the parliamentarians back. Then a shaman from the defending post arrives at the attackers’ camp. The two shamans sit with their backs to each other, on either side of the crossed swords stuck in the ground, and speak directly. Such a conversation ends with the conclusion of peace. The rite, which involved multi-stage negotiations, was supposed to create a certain mental mood in people, to demonstrate to everyone how difficult it is to settle the world and how important it is to protect it in the future.

Customs and holidays of the Koryaks
“Deer people” – this is how the word “Koryaks” is translated into Russian – live in Kamchatka, Chukotka and the Magadan region. There are about 10,000 of them. Koryak hunting equipment, myths, rituals, and holidays have a lot in common with the traditions of Alaskans. The famous ethnographer V.I. Iochelson put forward a hypothesis according to which “deer people” came to the Far East from America. Modern researchers do not deny the similarity of the Koryaks with the Indians, but they explain it differently: they and the others had common ancestors – the ancient hunters of Siberia.

Meet and greet the beast

Many Koryak customs and holidays were based on an ancient myth about a dying and resurrecting beast. When the hunter returned with the prey, the inhabitants of the camp hurried to meet him to solemnly welcome the “guest” – a bear, a seal, a fox. The women held burning embers in their hands. From a long time ago, it was a sign of special respect for a guest among the Koryaks. One of the participants of the ritual wore an animal skin and performed an ancient dance. While dancing, she asked the beast “not to be angry and to be kind to people.” Residents of the dwelling where the hunter lived prepared a festive treat and offered it to the “guest”. If the prey was a bear, a domestic deer was killed in its honor.
It was important not only to meet the animal well, but also to “see” it home with respect. This is how the farewell of the bear took place in one of the Koryak tribes. The residents of the stand were reenacting a hunting scene. One of them, throwing a bear skin over his shoulders, depicted a bear. At first he fought with the hunters, and then stopped the fight, took the bag of gifts prepared for him, and instead gave his skin to the people… For many decades, the Koryaks strictly monitored the fact that all their tribesmen performed the rite of meeting and seeing off the beast, because this is what , on their deep conviction, the return to life of animals killed on the hunt depended.

The holiday of the return of the sun

This holiday was celebrated by the Koryaks at the end of December after the winter solstice, when the length of daylight began to increase. On the eve of the holiday, the reindeer herders made sure to move and set up a stable in a new place. Then they waited for the guests to arrive. These were residents of other deer, as well as residents of coastal villages, sea hunters. The holiday began early in the morning. Women lit a fire with the help of a wooden armchair that looked like a human figure. Men killed deer. It was believed that they were sacrificed to the one above – the sun. The head of the largest sacrificial deer was put on a pole and turned to the east. Deer blood was “fed” to the kresal, and all participants of the holiday were treated to meat. After a rich meal, which was accompanied by singing and dancing, sports competitions began.

Customs and holidays of the Chukchi
Chukchi – these days their number is slightly more than 15 thousand people – inhabit the extreme northeast of Russia, Chukotka. The name of this distant Arctic region translates as “land of the Chukchi”. The Russian word “Chukchi” comes from the Chukchi “chauchu” – “rich in deer”. The Chukchi have a thousand-year history. Their distant ancestors came to the Arctic from the central regions of Siberia, when there was a large isthmus connecting Asia and America at the Bering Strait. Thus, part of the inhabitants of Northeast Asia crossed the “Beringian Bridge” to Alaska. In the traditional culture , customs and holidays of the Chukchi, features can be traced that bring them closer to the Indian peoples of North America.

Kayak holiday

According to the ancient beliefs of the Chukchi, everything that surrounds a person has a soul. There is a soul near the sea, there is a kayaker, a boat covered with walrus skin, on which even today arctic starlings fearlessly go out into the ocean. Until recently, hunters organized a special holiday every spring so that the sea would accept the kayak. It began with the ceremonial removal of the boat from the masts made of jawbones of the bowhead whale, on which it was kept during the long Chukchi winter. Then they made a sacrifice to the sea: they threw pieces of boiled meat into the water. Baidara was brought to the yaranga of the traditional Chukchi dwelling – and all the participants of the holiday passed around the yaranga. The old woman herself was the first to goin the family, then the owner of the kayaks, the helmsman, oarsmen, the rest of the holiday participants. The next day, the boat was brought to the shore, a sacrifice to the sea was made again, and only after that the kayak was launched.

The holiday of the whale

At the end of the industrial season, in late autumn or early winter, the coastal Chukchi held a whale festival. It was based on the rite of reconciliation of hunters with killed animals. People dressed in festive clothes, including special waterproof cloaks made of walrus intestines, asked for forgiveness from whales, seals, and walruses. “It wasn’t the hunters who killed you! The stones rolled down the mountain and killed you!” – sang, addressing whales, Chukchan women. Men arranged wrestling matches, performed dances that reenacted the deadly scenes of hunting sea animals.
Sacrifices were made to Keretkun, the master of all sea animals, on the holiday of the whale. After all, the residents of Chukotka believed that success in hunting depends on him. In the yarang, where the holiday was held, Keretkun’s net woven from deer sinew was hung, figures of animals and birds carved from bone and wood were installed. One of the wooden sculptures depicted the master of sea animals himself. The culmination of the holiday was the sinking of whale bones into the sea. In the sea water , the Chukchi believed, the bones will turn into new animals, and whales will appear again next year near the shores of Chukotka.

Fallow Deer Festival (Kilway)

The holiday of the young deer was celebrated in the Kilway continental tundra with the same solemnity as the holiday of the whale among the coastal inhabitants. It was held in the spring, during calving. The holiday began with shepherds driving the herd to the yarang, and women lighting a sacred fire. Fire for such a hearth was obtained only by friction, as people did it many hundreds of years ago. Deer were greeted with loud shouts and gunshots to scare away evil spirits. This purpose was also served by tambourines, which were played alternately by men and women. Residents of coastal villages often took part in the celebration together with the reindeer herder. They were invited to Kilway in advance, and the wealthier the family, the more guests gathered for the holiday. In exchange for their gifts, the inhabitants of the coastal villages received deer skins and venison, which was considered a delicacy for them.

On the feast of the young deer, they not only rejoiced on the occasion of the birth of deer, but also performed an important job: they separated the heifers with calves from the main part of the herd in order to graze them on the most abundant pastures. During the holiday, some of the adult deer were killed. This was done in order to prepare meat in reserve for women, old people and children. The fact is that after Kilway, the residents of the camp were divided into two groups. Elderly people, women, and children stayed in the winter parking lots, where they caught fish and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with deer herds on a long journey, to summer camps. Summer pastures were located to the north of winter nomads, near the coast of the polar seas. The long transition with the herd was difficult, often dangerous. Therefore, the holiday of a young deer is also a farewell before a long separation. and they also performed important work: they separated the heifers with calves from the main part of the herd in order to graze them on the most abundant pastures. During the holiday, some of the adult deer were killed. This was done in order to prepare meat in reserve for women, old people and children. The fact is that after Kilway, the residents of the camp were divided into two groups.

Elderly people, women, and children stayed in the winter parking lots, where they caught fish and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with deer herds on a long journey, to summer camps. Summer pastures were located to the north of winter nomads, near the coast of the polar seas. The long transition with the herd was difficult, often dangerous. Therefore, the holiday of a young deer is also a farewell before a long separation. and they also performed important work: they separated the heifers with calves from the main part of the herd in order to graze them on the most abundant pastures. During the holiday, some of the adult deer were killed. This was done in order to prepare meat in reserve for women, old people and children. The fact is that after Kilway, the residents of the camp were divided into two groups. Elderly people, women, and children stayed in the winter parking lots, where they caught fish and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with deer herds on a long journey, to summer camps. Summer pastures were located to the north of winter nomads, near the coast of the polar seas. The long transition with the herd was difficult, often dangerous. Therefore, the holiday of a young deer is also a farewell before a long separation. to graze them in the most abundant pastures. During the holiday, some of the adult deer were killed. This was done in order to prepare meat in reserve for women, old people and children. The fact is that after Kilway, the residents of the camp were divided into two groups. Elderly people, women, and children stayed in the winter parking lots, where they caught fish and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with deer herds on a long journey, to summer camps. Summer pastures were located to the north of winter nomads, near the coast of the polar seas. The long transition with the herd was difficult, often dangerous.

Therefore, the holiday of a young deer is also a farewell before a long separation. to graze them in the most abundant pastures. During the holiday, some of the adult deer were killed. This was done in order to prepare meat in reserve for women, old people and children. The fact is that after Kilway, the residents of the camp were divided into two groups. Elderly people, women, and children stayed in the winter parking lots, where they caught fish and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with deer herds on a long journey, to summer camps. Summer pastures were located to the north of winter nomads, near the coast of the polar seas. The long transition with the herd was difficult, often dangerous. Therefore, the holiday of a young deer is also a farewell before a long separation. that after Kilway the inhabitants of the camp were divided into two groups. Elderly people, women, and children stayed in the winter parking lots, where they caught fish and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with deer herds on a long journey, to summer camps. Summer pastures were located to the north of winter nomads, near the coast of the polar seas. The long transition with the herd was difficult, often dangerous. Therefore, the holiday of a young deer is also a farewell before a long separation. that after Kilway the inhabitants of the camp were divided into two groups. Elderly people, women, and children stayed in the winter parking lots, where they caught fish and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with deer herds on a long journey, to summer camps. Summer pastures were located to the north of winter nomads, near the coast of the polar seas. The long transition with the herd was difficult, often dangerous. Therefore, the holiday of a young deer is also a farewell before a long separation.

Customs and holidays of Eskimos
The people we call Eskimos live on the Chukchi Peninsula. This is the extreme northeast of the Asian part of Russia. There are only 1,700 Eskimos there. However, this is not the whole people, but only a small part of it , because the Eskimos still live in the USA, Canada and on the island of Greenland. There are more than 100,000 people in this nation in the world. Eskimos are sea starlings and hunters. They hunt whales, walruses, seals, seals and feed on the meat of these animals. The Eskimos call themselves Inuit, which means “real people.”

The holiday of the beginning of spring hunting (Atygak)

Sometimes this holiday is called differently – the holiday of launching kayaks into the water. They arrange it at the end of spring – at the beginning of summer. It is at this time that the sea animal hunting season begins. The family that has a kayak (and not everyone has them), with the help of relatives and neighbors, lowers it to the sea. Baidar is a light, fast-moving boat. It is a wooden frame covered with walrus skin. A large kayak could fit up to 25 people. A group of hunters will go fishing in a kayak. While the men are busy with the boat, the women prepare food: they cook the meat, make something like cutlets from meat, lard and seal fat, as well as a special dish made from roots and herbs collected in the summer. And then all the adult members of the family – men and women – begin to paint their faces with black graphite or soot, drawing several lines along the nose, on the chin, under the eyes. It’s not just a decoration, it’smagical rite . The number of these lines is directly related to the sea animal that this family believes brings them happiness – a walrus, a seal, a whale, a seal. Then everyone puts on festive white clothes . In the old days, it was a special garment made from the guts of sea animals. Then everyone goes to the seashore, carrying prepared food with them. The owner of the kayak cuts the brought meat into small pieces and throws them into the sea and the air. It is a sacrifice to the spirits of the wind and the master of sea beasts. Success in hunting depends on them. A part of the meat is immediately thrown into the burning fire – this is a sacrifice to the spirit of fire.

Holiday of walruses (Naskunykhkilyk)

The walrus hunt usually ended at the end of July. The period of stormy weather began and the sea hunters did not risk going far from the shore in their kayaks for walrus fishing. Then it was time for another holiday. On the day of the holiday, a walrus carcass was taken out of the glacier. The owner of the yurt or a shaman invited by him began to beat the tambourine, calling for a feast of various spirits, which depend on a person’s life, health and hunting luck. The host took part of the cooked food to the seashore, threw it in small pieces into the air and into the water with the words: “Come here, everyone, and eat!”
After the meat was divided among the relatives, the walrus skull was taken to a special rock – the sacrificial place of the “mistress of sea animals”. As during the holiday of the beginning of the spring hunt, all families walk in turn, but each invites all the inhabitants of the village.

Feast of the Whale (Fields)

The whale is the main industrial animal of the Eskimos, the most dangerous from the point of view of hunting it and the most desirable, because the whale is a lot of meat and fat. They can feed the whole village at once, they can stock up for a long time. The person who killed (harpooned) the whale arranges the holiday. All the inhabitants of the village gather to him. Whales are processed right on the shore and eaten right there. During the holiday, images of whales are made – wooden sculptures – which are hung in different corners of the yaranga. Finely crushed graphite is used at the festival, which, thrown into the air, magically reproduces a fountain released in the ocean by a whale. On holidays, whales, as usual, walk around the village. Many families keep amulets with the image of a whale. In honor of the whale, a special dance is performed, which reproduces all stages of the hunt for it. Interesting,

Linguists believe that the representatives of this Siberian people are the closest relatives of the Hungarians, while they do not forgive insults like the Sicilians, their families could be at odds with each other for centuries, like the Montagues and Capulets, they practiced bigamy like Muslims.

Their men dressed up in women’s clothes for the play, like the actors of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater , they played the seven-stringed harp and 26 other types of plucked instruments, like the ancient Greeks, while the Russians played the balalaika, and besides, they still drink fresh blood , like one Romanian prince who became infamous.
And all this is about Khanty people, who call themselves Khanty, Khande, Kantek, which means “people”, or by the names of rivers, for example: Kondikhou ï – that is, “Konda people”.

Siberian eels
The Russians nicknamed the Khants “Ostyaks”. Perhaps this is a distorted As-jah – “the people of Obi”. The Samoyeds (now Nenets)
called the Khants “Yaran” or “Yargan”, which is consonant with the Irtysh-Khant word “yara”, which means “stranger”.
Historians believe that in the 6th-5th millennium BC, the ancestors of the Khanty lived in the forest and forest-steppe zone of the Urals and Western Siberia, and then the warlike nomadic inhabitants of the south pushed them to the north of Siberia. In the 12th century, the Turks – the ancestors of the Siberian Tatars
– came to Ob . Later, the entire Irtysh was conquered, but the khanates managed to maintain their independence from the Siberian Khanate. So that at the time of the annexation of the West Siberian lands to Russia at the end of the XVIcentury, the Khanty formed separate principalities united in a military-political union.
Russians began to create volosts near the Khanty principalities, where peasants from the European part of the country began to actively move in the 17th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, there were about 7,800 khans in Siberia; by the end of the 19th century, their number was 16,000, and according to the latest census of the Russian Federation , there were almost 31,000. And in general, there are approximately 32 thousand representatives of this people in the world today. Because this small indigenous people of Russia has long lived in the taiga in the north of Western Siberia along the banks of the Ob and Irtysh, as well as their tributaries (they are also called Ob Ugars for a reason), it is not surprising that the traditional occupation of the Khanty is river fishing.

Bear, aka Khanty Prometheus
And of course, the Khanty are excellent hunters, in the old days they hunted fur animals, as well as elk and bear, and only two centuries ago they engaged in forest deer breeding. For many centuries they lived by fishing and gathering.
Animal husbandry and vegetable growing began to develop among the Khanty people who live in the southern regions and along the Ob, only from the 19th century.
Therefore, the cult of worshiping tree spirits and totemic animals flourished among the Khanty people, the most important of which was the bear.
According to the Khanty beliefs, the first woman in the world was born from a bear, and fire was given to people by the Great Bear.
However, the worship of the “lord of the taiga” did not prevent the khans from hunting him at all. On the contrary, catching a bear was considered a great success and an obligation to arrange a big holiday for fellow villagers.
If the hunter-hunt succeeded in trapping a bear, the whole village triumphed for four days, and if a bear, then a day longer. Considering the fact that each Khanty family kept more than one bear skin, bear hunting was a common thing for this people.
Refreshing the bear is a separate ceremony. They flayed him for everyone to see. The head of the male bear was left intact and placed on its front paws, silver coins were placed on its nose, and a muzzle specially made of birch bark was put on its mouth. The bear’s head was decorated with a woman’s scarf and necklaces.
The bear holiday was necessarily accompanied by delicacies from the bear den, ritual songs, dances and humorous performances. It is interesting that only men could fool around on this holiday. If they played skits about women, they changed into women’s clothes.

Mykola Ugodnyk, aka Num-Torum
The khans also had other sacred animals. Suppose, otters and beavers were revered by them as sacred animals, the true purpose of which is known only to shamans. And, for example, a moose was considered a symbol of prosperity and strength.
Khanty beliefs forbade them to settle in places inhabited by animals, hunt young or pregnant animals, and make noise in the forest without reason. In addition, they wove a net of such a size that young fish could slip through the large cells.
The Khanty sacrificed the first harvest or catch to their wooden idols.
Of course, like many pagans, the Khants especially respected shamans and obeyed them in everything. And even after Orthodoxy was officially adopted, somehow they manage to mix it with animism and zoomorphism in some strange way .

For example, Russian travelers more than once watched with amazement how the khans smeared the lips of sacrificial animals depicted on the icons with the blood of the saints, and also noticed that the Ob Ugrians stubbornly confused Mykola Ugodnyk with the pagan supreme god, who was called Num-Torum, and the Mother of God with Kaltas-equa.

This is due to the fact that the Khanty did not easily succumb to Christianization.

Grandmother is a wagtail, grandfather is a beaver
Until the 18th century, the khans were dominated by large paternal and fraternal families who considered birds or animals to be their ancestors (one family “descended” from a beaver, another from a “wagtail”…) . If the older brother died, the younger one took his widow as his wife and adopted all the children. Reindeer hunters could also take a young one to help the old wife.
The Khanty did not consider premarital sex as something bad. On the contrary, a young woman who already has a child out of wedlock was valued higher as a bride: she proved that she was capable of giving birth to healthy children.
But in order to overcome infertility, the khans went to any lengths, even adultery.

A wife was allowed to try to get pregnant not from her husband, but from another man. For a man – to take a second, fertile, wife.

At the same time, the khans believed that difficult childbirth exposes the wife to infidelity. Allegedly, the gods punish in this way a woman who walks, and a decent woman would give birth quickly and easily.
The Khanty has had a strong tradition of blood revenge since ancient times. Some families have been at war with each other for many generations. Especially if this feud started with murder.
By the way, the Khanty took revenge for killed relatives not only on people, but also on animals. If a hunter was mauled by a bear, his closest relative had to find the killer and execute him. In this case, no one organized a bear festival, the corpse of the killer bear should simply be burned – so that other clubfoot would not suffer.

Onion happiness
Like other peoples of the Far North, the Khanty eat deer entrails with pleasure. They are not disgusted by the contents of deer stomachs either. But what is “neglected” there! They prepare a delicacy called “kaniga” from what is left in the deer’s stomach, a dish considered very healthy. In fact, it is either half-digested yagel (in winter), or lichens, shrubs and mushrooms seasoned with deer stomach juice (in summer).
And of course, the Khanty people drink the blood of a freshly killed deer, and immediately split the deer legs and eat the bone marrow, because centuries of experience have convinced them that raw meat perfectly fills vitamin deficiencies, strengthens the immune system, and warms the bitter cold.
Khanty fish was most often cooked into soup, but it could also be eaten raw.
The women of this nation are excellent craftsmen. They skilfully sew clothes and shoes from deer fur, suede and colored cloth, profusely decorating all this with bead embroidery. The traditional ornaments of the Khanty people largely echo their traditional beliefs and are called, for example, “hare ears”, “birch branches”, “sable trail”, “deer horns”, “pike teeth”… The most important male symbol for the Khanty
people was a hunting bow, which served as both a hunting tool and a talisman. Onions were used for divination, onions were used to predict the future.

Women were forbidden to touch prey pierced with an arrow, they had no right to step over a hunting bow.

In winter, the khans moved on skis (with kamus and on snowshoes), as well as on reindeer and dog sleds, and in summer they rafted on rivers in cargo boats and seine boats. However, for long-distance trips to the rich fishing grounds managed only by them, the khans went in special large boats with real cabins covered with birch trees.

Talk to me, seven-stringed harp. The diversity of the traditional stringed and plucked instruments
of the Khanty is amazing . At least 27 types of these instruments are known, each of which is associated either with some totem animal or with a certain ritual. For example, the seven-string Khanty harp symbolizes a swan.

The Mansi are a small ethnic group living in Russia in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District. They are “brothers” of the Magyars and the Khanty. The Mansi even have their own language, Mansi, but most of the people now speak Russian.
The Mansi population is about 11 thousand. At the same time, it was found that several hundred people settled in the Sverdlovsk region . Single representatives can also be found in Perm Krai.
The word “Mansi” means “man” in Mansi. Also, this word comes from the name of the area “Sagin Mansi”. Because it was there that the first Mansi people lived.

A little about the Mansi language

This language belongs to the Ob-Hungarian group. The Mansi script emerged in 1931, based on Latin. And the merger with the Russian language happened a little later – in 1937. The Mansi literary language is based on the Sosvin dialect.

Historical reference

The development of the ethnic group was strongly influenced by interaction with other ethnic groups . Namely, with the Hungarian tribes , indigenous tribes of Prikamya, Pre-Urals and Southern Trans-Urals. In the second millennium BC e. all these nationalities moved from Northern Kazakhstan and Western Siberia.
The peculiarity of the ethnos is that the culture of the Mansi people includes the culture of fishermen and hunters together with the culture of nomads and herders. These cultures are neighbors among themselves even now.
At first, the Mansi inhabited the Urals, but they were gradually displaced in the Trans-Urals. Since the 11th century, the Mansi began to maintain communication with the Russians, mainly with the inhabitants of Novgorod. After the merger of the Russians with Siberia, the ethnic group was increasingly displaced to the North. In the 18th century, the Mansi officially recognized Christianity as their faith.

Mansi culture

Orthodoxy was formally accepted by the Mansi people, but in fact, shamanism did not go anywhere from their lives. The culture of the Mansi people continues to include the cult of guardian spirits, as well as bear holidays.
The traditions of the Mansi people are divided into two groups – Por and Mos. The fact that the Mansi were allowed to marry only people belonging to another group is also interesting. For example, a Mos man could choose only a woman as his wife, see Leeks come from people from the Urals. Tales of the Mansi people testify that the ancestor of the Pora people was a bear. It is said about the Mos people that they were born by a woman who can transform into a butterfly, a goose and a hare. Mos are descendants of Hungarian tribes. Everything indicates that the Mansi were good warriors and regularly participated in hostilities. As in Russia, they had heroes, soldiers and governors.
Ornament was the leading element in art. As a rule, it was inscribed with rhombuses, deer horns, and zigzags. And there were also often drawings with images of animals. Mostly a bear or an eagle.

Traditions and daily life of the Mansi people

The traditions of the Mansi people included fishing, deer breeding, cattle breeding, hunting wild animals, and agriculture.
Mansi women’s clothing consisted of fur coats, dresses and robes. Mansi women liked to wear many ornaments at the same time. Men preferred to wear loose shirts with trousers, and also often chose items with hoods.
Mansi people mainly ate fish and meat products . They categorically rejected mushrooms and did not use them.

Stories and myths

Tales of the Mansi people say that the earth was originally in the water and was pulled out from there by the bird Luli. Some myths disagree with this and claim that the evil spirit Kul-Otyr did it. For reference: Kul-Otyr was considered the master of the entire dungeon. The main gods of the Mansi people were called Polum-Torum (the patron of all animals and fish), Mir-susne-huma (which connects people and the divine world), Tovlin-luva (his horse), Myh-imi (the goddess who gives health) , Kaltash-ekwu (the patroness of the earth), Hotal-ekwu (the patroness of the sun), Nai-ekwu (the patroness of fire).
Men have at least 5 souls, and women – less, at least four. The most important of them are two. One disappeared in the underground world , and the other inhabited a child. This is what all the tales of the Mansi people said.

Khanty and Mansi are two Finno-Hungarian peoples, close in culture and language. These peoples live in Western Siberia, in its northern part, mainly in the Tomsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions.

The main part of the territory of the district is impassable forests and taiga, in some places heavily swamped. Among them there are more than 25 thousand lakes rich in fish and waterfowl. Deer and other wild animals roam the forests.

The territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk District is crossed by two full-flowing rivers — the Ob and the Irtysh, the largest in Russia.

Hunting, fishing and reindeer herding have long been the main occupation of the local population. Women engaged in needlework – weaving, embroidery.

Khanty and Mansi national costumes are distinguished by bright embroideries and applications.

In the rites and holidays of these northern peoples, the enormous experience of humanity in the development of the North was laid down. The wedding ceremonies of this people are especially beautiful. The festivities last for several days, there is a lot of dancing and singing at the wedding, and competitions in wrestling, archery, and running are mandatory.

The parents of the bride and groom exchange gifts and present their relatives with gifts. Of course, the traditions of the ancestors are now rarely seen, most young Hansi prefer the modern celebration of marriage. Many are more attracted to a wedding abroad than at home.

Various prohibitions play an important role in the life of the Khanty and Mansi peoples, for example, you cannot injure the earth with sharp objects.

In the places of settlements of these peoples, there are areas of land on which a person’s foot should not step, if it was necessary to cross that place, birch bark was tied to the shoes.

Passing by such forbidden places, it was necessary to perform certain rituals, for example, to bring and sacrifice food or a sample of cloth. During the sacrifice, it was customary to turn to the spirits, the owners of these places.

The peoples of the North consider the raven a sacred bird, a patroness of children and women. The following song was recorded on the Sosva River:

With my appearance, little girls, little boys, let them be born! I will sit down on a pit with melted rot (from their cradles).

I will warm my frozen hands, I will warm my frozen feet. May long-lived girls be born, may long-lived boys be born!”,

that is why the rots that are poured into the babies’ cradles are never thrown away, but put in a special place behind the house, so that the crow will warm its paws there and protect the children who live in this house.

A special holiday is dedicated to the crow. Elderly women and girls gather for the holiday, a special ritual porridge of salamat is prepared.

The most important element of the holiday is dance. This holiday is also associated with the fertility goddess Kaltash. In her honor, pieces of cloth are tied on trees. Kaltash records the destinies of people on special tags and helps during childbirth.

Olena Nemirova