Photographer Page

Alexey Vasilyev

Ysyakh is a two-day festival. In Aldan, a festival goer dances during a night disco in preparation for greeting the sun on the second day.

Women of Amga prepare for the opening ceremony of Ysyakh, holding burners of cow dung so its smoke may drive away evil spirits sent to spoil the holiday.

People look on during the Ysyakh festival in Amga. Yakuts people are a Turkic ethnic group, historically persecuted by czarist and Soviet regimes; today they make up about half the population of Yakutia.

Families gather over a Ysyakh meal in Magaras. Before the osuokhay dance, this important meal allows respectable elders to bless the younger generations.

Women don traditional gowns to prepare for the opening ceremony of Ysyakh in the town of Aldan.

Lottery prizes are called out at the end of the Ysyakh festival in the village of Magaras.

People dance osuokhay, the Yakut national dance that takes places after the opening prayer, at a Ysyakh celebration in the city of Mirny.

A festivalgoer dresses in traditional costume in the village of Amga. Many families spend time together preparing the summer festival outfits, and mothers pass down inherited jewellery.

Arts performances—singing, playing traditional instruments, and reciting oral folktales—are one of the main activities at the Ysyakh festival in the town of Aldan.

A festival goer takes a selfie. Many locals spend as long as two months on vacation during the brief summer, which lasts from June to July.