Regional festival Khatlye is an event-based, socio-cultural project aimed at developing and preserving the culture of indigenous peoples of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra, as an integral part of the culture of the Russian Federation, using the potential of the Ecocenter.
The festival promotes: • identifying and uniting folklore performers and masters of folk arts and crafts; • preservation and development of the culture of the region, strengthening the sense of identity, establishing partnerships; • attracting new participants to the inter-museum cultural space; • formation of a database of intangible cultural heritage of Ugra, replenishment of museum funds; • strengthening a tolerant attitude towards representatives of different ethnic groups; • revival of rituals, traditions, national cuisine, traditional crafts and crafts; • formation of the tourist attractiveness of the region, the museum, ethnographic and ecological park "Ugra". As part of the Festival, on the basis of the Ecocenter, a Coordination Center for preserving the linguistic environment, holding folklore holidays and rituals of the Eastern Khanty was created, the chairman of which is the Deputy Chairman of the Duma of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra, Chairman of the Assembly of Representatives of Indigenous Minorities of the North E.D. Aipin. Traditional arts and crafts, folklore of the indigenous peoples of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra represent a valuable historical source and are part of the spiritual and material culture of the indigenous peoples of the world. To date, practically no traditions have been preserved in their “pure form,” although bearers of “pure culture” are still alive and pass on their knowledge to the younger generation. The traditional rite of the Ob Ugrians “Bear Games” is the cultural heritage of the Khanty and Mansi peoples, it has an unusually complex, carefully developed expressive form, represented by mythological and personal songs, oral history, choreography, comedy skits, impersonations and music performed on ethnic instruments. The ritual has artistic, historical and anthropological value and plays an important role in preserving cultural diversity. Since 2016, the Regional Festival has been taking place on the territory of the Ugra Museum, Ethnographic and Ecological Park. During the festival, a huge amount of work was done to identify the bearers of the ritual holiday “Bear Games”, ritual actions were restored and learned, and some of the necessary details were made. In 2022, a reconstruction of the holiday of the “Bear Games” ritual of the eastern territorial group of the Khanty was carried out and it was carried out by masters of folklore, bearers of the traditional culture of the indigenous peoples of the North - Sergey Vasilievich Kechimov, Semyon Alexandrovich Aipin, Yakov Nikiforovich Tarlin, Danila Nikolaevich Pokachev, and also produced photo and video recording of the event. When summing up the results of the festival, at a meeting of the Coordination Center for the Preservation of the Language Environment, for the holding of folklore holidays and rituals of the Eastern Khanty and Forest Nenets, it was decided to provide in the program of the VIII Regional Festival the organization and holding of a “Bear Games” school for training and transmission knowledge and skills. To solve this problem, it was proposed to combine the experience and resources of the Ecocenter, to provide master classes in the festival program for in-depth study, analysis of the principles and methods of holding the “Bear Games” holiday. This form of work will contribute not only to the popularization of this ritual holiday, but will also contribute to the competent education of the successors of the “carriers” of the tradition.
The geography of the festival is growing and unites participants from different regions of Russia and abroad; over the entire period of the festival’s existence, representatives of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (Khanty-Mansiysk, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Langepas, Lyantor, Megion, Russkinskaya village, Novoagansk village, Agan village, Varyogan village, Novoagansk village, Kazym village, Korliki village, Beloyarsky city, Pokachi city, etc.), Tyumen region (Tyumen, Tobolsk), Sverdlovsk region (Ekaterinburg), Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Ufa; countries: Finland, Hungary, France, Estonia, Germany.
The target audience of the festival is representatives of indigenous peoples of the North, leaders of club formations, masters of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra, teachers, professors of higher educational institutions, ethnographers and employees of cultural institutions.