OPEN EDITION GALLERY

Novytarial village. Mari-el Republic. The ritual of the swing. Women, one day of the year, that coincides with the beginning of spring, get the swing to let their negative feelings fade away.

There is a population with Finnish ancestry living in a rural area near Joshkar-ola, in the Republic of Mari El, Russia: Mari people.

The Mari are the last pagan population of the West. About 600,000 people in houndreds of small villages who live in a symbiotic relationship with nature, which is celebrated as the basis of their existence. Nature is our temple, they say.