Calendrical rituals from spring to winter

There were many rituals performed in the course of the year, some locally, some across larger regions and some throughout the whole of Sapmi. In the south Sami area, the following four festivals seem to have been the most important, one of which was celebrated during each of the four resting seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Example: the Bear Festival

Preparations for the Bear Festival began as early as the preceding autumn, when one of the hunters tried to find where the bear - the bissaajja “sacred grandfather” - would hibernate during winter. This search was called “ringing the bear” because the hunter followed the track of the bear in ever smaller circles or rings until the place of hibernation was found and marked so that it would be easy to find the next spring.

Following the bear hunt in spring, when the animal was driven from its winter lair and killed, the hunters passed on their skis over the skin, sang a chant (a vuelie) and performed various other ritual actions before leaving the bear behind and returning to the settlement.

The second day, the day of the Bear Feast, started with the men returning to fetch the dead bear. While doing this they sang several vuelies, and having arrived back in the settlement with the bear, the women spat chewed alder bark on the animal, which was then skinned to an accompaniment of several vuelies. It was important for the bear not to understand that it had been killed by a group of Sami, because if it did it might become a killer bear when it later returned to our world from the world of the departed. Therefore, one of the vuelies asserted that “Here come men from Sweden [Poland, England, France, etc.].” The bear meat was boiled in a special tent where only men were present. The women and children stayed in another tent, although children sometimes ran between the two tents reporting to the women what the men were doing and vice versa. There were many regulations as to how the meat had to be boiled as well as to which parts of the bear were reserved for the men and which portions the women were allowed to eat during the meal that followed. After the meal, the hunters washed themselves in lye and then ran about imitating the bear. Finally, there was a game to decide when and by whom the next bear was to be killed. This could take a number of forms. For instance, the bearskin was hung up between some trees and the women were blindfolded and spun around before trying to hit the skin with a piece of alder wood. The husband of the woman who first hit the skin was entrusted with the important task of leading the next bear hunt.

After these festivities, one final and very important ritual followed: the burial of the bear bones. Since it was believed that the bear would continue living in the world of the departed, and later perhaps be reborn into our world, it was regarded as crucial to ensure that all the bones were collected and that they were unbroken.