At the Kola Sami museum in Lovezero Russia.
Reindeer husbandry has been, and is, an important aspect of Sami culture. During the years of forced assimilation, the areas in which reindeer herding was an important livelihood were among the few where the Sami culture and language survived.
Today, in Norway, reindeer husbandry is legally protected as an exclusive Sami livelihood, such that only persons of Sami descent with a linkage to a reindeer herding family can own, and hence make a living off of, reindeer. Presently, about 2,800 people are engaged in reindeer herding in Norway.
The Saami People the indigenous people of Finland, Norway, Sweden worship Beiwei, the Sun Goddess of fertility and sanity, who travels through the sky ina structure made from reindeer bones with her daughter Beiwei- Neia to herald back the greenery on which their reindeer feed. On the Winter Solstice, her worshipers sacrifice white female animals, and with the meat, sticks and thread they weave rings with ribbon. They cover their door posts with butter to set them on their way again through the night sky.
This forms one part of the traditional Christmas Scene, with the reinders inthe sky pulling a sleigh and also the making of round wreaths.
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