Traditionally, at the end of March, the northern regions of Russia celebrate Reindeer Herders' Day. Each region chooses the specific day on which the holiday is held, depending on how they manage to negotiate with the representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North, since these people constantly lead a nomadic lifestyle and live far from cities in the tundra.
The tradition of celebrating Reindeer Herders' Day is not very old, it appeared in the Soviet Union in the 50s. These events were organized in order to pay tribute to the hard work of reindeer herders, their culture, customs and traditions. In recent years, this bright and unusual holiday has been steadily gaining popularity. In large cities, for example, in Salekhard (the administrative center of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), more than 50 thousand people take part in the holiday every year. Among them are both city residents themselves and numerous tourists, including foreign ones.
The holiday is celebrated for two days. For this purpose, an extensive entertainment program and many contests and various competitions have been compiled. For example, the festival includes a beauty contest of national costumes of the people of the North, a contest for the most beautiful reindeer team, a championship in slicing stroganina (a local dish that is thinly sliced frozen fish), throwing a lasso on a special pole (imitation of catching a deer by the antlers), national wrestling "Kuresh" (a type of belt wrestling), races and stunts on snowmobiles and dirt bikes, master classes in cooking national dishes of the peoples of the North and many other activities.
But the main competition for which everything is arranged is, of course, reindeer sled racing. At the same time, there are separate mass races for men and separate women's races. The number of teams participating in the races is more than forty. The length of the track is 2.5 km. In some areas, the speed of the reindeer reaches 40 km per hour. The winners of the races receive various prizes from the state as a gift. The main prize is a snowmobile. Snowmobiles are an important piece of equipment for any modern reindeer herder. Important, but still not the main one. Reindeer always come first, since reindeer are also the basis of the diet of the inhabitants of the north, and valuable warm skin, from which clothes are sewn and housing is insulated. In addition, the social status of the reindeer herder and his family is assessed by the number of heads. An interesting fact - In Yamal, the number of reindeer exceeds the number of people - 760 thousand animals for 510 thousand residents.
