Fisherman’s Day

Rituals connected with fishing have long been around in Chukotka’s coastal settlements. At present this ritual is held annually on the second Sunday of July.

The climax of the Fisherman’s day is the ritual called “Koprak Amatgyrgyn” a/k/a “Feeding the net”. The fish meant to «feed the net» were cleaned in the following way: the tail was cut off, and the rest of the fish was cut into four pieces and boiled. Boiled fish was piled on a wooden plank laid with a green bough. During the ritual, deer sausage (so-called rorat) was also used. Like fish, it was also divided into four pieces. The folded net was partially unrolled and laid approximately three metres from a yaranga’s entrance. The ritual food was placed in the net in the following way: the head and a piece of flesh was placed in a corner, near the floats, which themselves take the form of fish; two more pieces of flesh were placed on the opposite side; a third piece was placed in the middle of the net; and adjacent to it were placed half-digested fish taken from the intestines. Guts, stomach and liver were placed closer to the folded part of the net. The tail was put near them. Pieces of rotat sausage were placed on the folded net one next another.