The story
Yamal Reindeer Herder Day in Salekhard/Yamal towns
Reindeer Herder's Day is an annual Nenets and Khanty cultural holiday celebrated across Yamal-Nenets towns including Salekhard, usually in late winter or early spring when herding families bring their reindeer teams in from the tundra. Towns host reindeer-sled races, lasso-throwing and wrestling competitions, and contests for the best-decorated sled and traditional dress.
On the Yamal Peninsula, reindeer herding is not a revived folk tradition but a continuously practiced way of life: thousands of Nenets and Khanty families still migrate seasonally with their herds across the tundra, following routes their families have used for generations.