The Sami people bring on spring – with reindeer and sleighs

|
Avedis Hadjian
Sami competitors get their animals ready for the reindeer-pulled sleigh contest.

In the Sapmi, the Arctic homeland of the Sami people, the end of winter isn’t announced by green sprouts or the cheery chirps of birds. Instead, the Sami sing folk songs around a roaring fire and race reindeer in the snow. 

The Sami live in a frigid expanse stretching across the northern reaches of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Since the 1970s, the weeklong Easter festival in Kautokeino, Norway, has attracted Sami and a growing number of non-Sami participants. Although the Sami people’s relationship with Christianity has been contentious at times, Easter has become a popular spring feast, when Kautokeino Church fills with worshippers in their finest brightly colored gákti, or traditional clothing. 

“Spring has always been an important time in such a climate-wise, dramatic world as the Arctic,” says Ánde Somby, a traditional joik singer and associate professor of law at the University of Tromsø. 

The heart of the celebration is the joik, the singing with which the Sami celebrate the things that mean the most to them. “Joik” is also a transitive verb. You joik winter, your love, or a pack of wolves. 

The joik, and Sami culture generally, for a long time had been endangered under the fornorsking, or Norwegianization, policy. Yet with the Easter festival, the Sami are experiencing a “renaissance,” Mr. Somby says.

“Soon, the Easter celebration will be out of Christianity and missionaries’ hands,” he adds, noting “how much inspiration and creative power the youth display during the Easter festival.” 

Avedis Hadjian
John Stone Fire (the performance name of John Steinar Baal) sits by a fire in his lavvu. Lavvus have an opening at the top to let smoke out when cod or reindeer meat is cooked.
Avedis Hadjian
Competitors test their mettle as they race reindeer against a frigid backdrop in Kautokeino.
Avedis Hadjian
John Stone Fire stands outside his lavvu, a traditional temporary dwelling of the Sami.
Avedis Hadjian
Worshippers at the Easter service, a popular feast among the Sami, wear traditional dress in Kautokeino Church in Kautokeino, Norway.
You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
QR Code to The Sami people bring on spring – with reindeer and sleighs
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2024/0516/sami-easter-spring-celebration
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe