Yamal started celebrating the Reindeer Herder’s Day. It will travel around the region till the end of April

The celebrating season of the main holiday of nomads in the North – the Reindeer Herder’s Day – was started on the 22nd of February in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. 

Reindeer herders of Purovskiy district on the trading station Kar-Nat are the first to celebrate it on the 22nd and the 23rd of February. Individual and team competitions in national kinds of sport among agricultural enterprises of the municipality are taking place here. This information was given in the press-service of the governor of Yamal.
As it informed in the district administration, the program includes the opening ceremony and the sports part. The competitions in throwing of a tynzyan on a khorey (a rope-lasso for catching reindeer on a long pole for driving a reindeer team) and the ski races were started in the morning. During the day the participants of the competitions are competing in the triple jump, national wrestling, mas-wrestling and jumps over narty (northern sledge of nomads).
The second day of the holiday is dedicated to the race of reindeer teams. The entertainment program includes contests of national clothes, folklore and the holiday concert. The trading points and points with hot tea and pastry are organized according to the tradition within the competitions.
Starting in Purovskiy district, the Reindeer Herder’s Day will travel around Yamal till the 22nd of April, when it will take place in the settlement Seyakha of Yamalskiy district. Traditionally the XXIII Open competitions of reindeer herders and the Cup of the governor of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug on the 3rd and the 4th of March will become the central event. These competitions are the largest in the region. For example, 12 teams from Krasnoselkoup, Nadymskiy, Priuralskiy, Purovskiy, Tazovskiy, Shuryshkarskiy and Yamalskiy districts competed for the Cup in 2017. The winners of all competitions received prizes – snowmobiles. Chainsaws, motor drills and electricity generators necessary for tundra dwellers were given for the second and the third places. Traditionally the social and preventive action “Be healthy, tundra-dweller” is organized in Nadym and other places of conducting of the holiday. Mobile health centers work for reindeer herders within the action.
In Salekhard the Reindeer Herder’s Day will take place on the 24th of March. On this day the sitting of the Council of the Association of the World Reindeer Herders will take place in the regional capital beside the traditional competitions in national kinds of sport and the cultural program.