The story
Dzyalbu Kolyma Indigenous Culture Festival in Magadan
Every other March, Magadan's Dyukcha ethnic park hosts Dzyalbu, meaning meeting of friends in the Even language, a festival celebrating the arrival of northern spring among the indigenous peoples of the Kolyma region. Traditional sports of northern peoples, national dishes, a folk craft fair, and a show of sled dogs with accompanying dog-sled races bring together residents representing the area's diverse ethnic communities.
March in Magadan is not spring by any normal calendar reckoning; the ground is still frozen, the light is still thin, and yet this is precisely when the indigenous communities of the Kolyma region choose to mark the season's turn, gathering at Dyukcha ethnic park for a festival called Dzyalbu, an Even-language phrase that translates roughly to meeting of friends.