The Sami people of Europe's Arctic held their National Day today, with some gathering around bonfires and eating reindeer dishes to celebrate the survival of their ancient lifestyle over many efforts to assimilate it into mainstream culture.
The once-oppressed indigenous reindeer herders in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwestern Russia began celebrating February 6th as their national day in 1993.
The date marks the first Sami national congress, when about 100 herders gathered in Trondheim, Norway, in 1917.
Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit visited the Sami Parliament in the Arctic town of Karasjok, where temperatures were -20 Fahrenheit.
The royal palace also launched a Sami-language version of its Internet site today.
The Sami - also known as Lapps - settled with their reindeer herds some 9,000 years ago in Europe's Arctic, and now call themselves one nation of about 70,000 people spread across the four countries.
For generations, the Nordic ethnic majority sought to assimilate the Sami into the mainstream culture, by banning their language and culture, while Russian Sami were isolated by Iron Curtain for 70 years of Soviet rule.
Now Sami have their own parliaments, schools, newspapers and broadcasts in their own language.
Most Sami live modern lifestyles, and few still herd reindeer.
But throughout the Arctic today they turned out in colorful costumes, called Kofte, singing traditional yoik songs, and flying the Sami flag, to recall their roots.
In Finland, party guests in the Inari, 730 miles north of the capital, Helsinki, braved temperatures of -22 Fahrenheit as they stood outside near bonfires to eat traditional reindeer dishes.
In Sweden, Sami Nils Gustav Labba said his country's traditional herders are still "not that good" at celebrating compared to Norwegian Sami with their bigger events.
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