My grandmother was a true representative of my people, the Mari. Throughout my childhood, while I lived with her in the village, she became my guide into the vast world of Mari culture and the ancient Mari pagan faith. Thanks to her, I learned the Mari language, folk signs and customs, traditional music, and, of course, the national cuisine, which holds a very special place in my heart.
She took me to sacred groves where prayers were offered to pagan gods, taught me traditional dance movements, and told stories about witchcraft and spirits that should never be angered. All of this forms the immense and fragile beauty of my people’s culture – a culture that, unfortunately, continues to disappear and fade with each passing year.
My grandmother is no longer alive, but I am endlessly grateful to her. She gave me everything bright and meaningful within me, raised me to be a good person, and, most importantly, instilled in me a deep love for my native culture – a love that continues to live through memory, observation, and lived experience.
It is from this place that my work begins.
This project documents the ritual holiday Shoryk Yol, photographed entirely in the villages of the Republic of Mari El. Shoryk Yol is a traditional winter celebration of the Mari people, marking the transition from the old year to the new and carrying hopes for prosperity, well-being, and renewal in the life of the family and the household.
The name Shoryk Yol, meaning “sheep’s leg” is connected to a group of ritual and playful practices centered around sheep, which hold an important symbolic role in the holiday. One of the traditions involved young girls gathering in complete darkness inside a barn to touch or pull a sheep’s leg and try to guess its age or colour. These gestures were interpreted as signs foretelling future fate, marriage, or the character of a future partner. Such customs reflect the close relationship between human life, animal fertility, and the cyclical rhythms of nature.
Shoryk Yol also includes masked processions, singing, dancing, and visiting from house to house. Mummers move through the village, and hosts welcome them with food and generosity, believing that hospitality attracts vital and fertile forces. Fortune-telling, weather observation, and family prayers held in each home are integral parts of the celebration, reinforcing communal bonds and the connection between the visible and invisible worlds during this liminal time of year.
The Mari people belong to the Volga-Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, sharing ancient linguistic and cultural roots with Finns, Estonians, Udmurts, Komis, Hungarians, and other Finno-Ugric peoples of Eastern Europe.
Shot on my native land, Republic of Mari El (2023)
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