The exhibition showcased the head of a sacred bear that was killed, and which the Khanty and Mansi used to celebrate the so-called bear celebration. This is part of the bear cult: the celebration is held in honor of the animal that reigns in the Russian forests, or after a successful hunt for one. In the past, when it was not allowed to kill bears, bear celebration were held every winter for seven years in a row, followed by a seven-year break. The celebration began in December, at the winter solstice, and ended in March, at the vernal equinox.

During the celebration, the bear was represented by its skin, which was usually kept in a sacred barn. The first part of the celebration included songs and legends about the bear, and dances done by ancestors of the families or different lineages. Special ‘bear’ songs were performed. This was followed by ‘invocational songs’ and ‘bird dances’, during which both common deities and the ancestors of genealogical groups were invoked, as well as dances with sabers or swords. This part of the celebration was sacred.

The performers of dances, songs, and comic scenes - interludes - were men in disguise, including in women’s roles. On the last night of the bear celebration, they put on sacred performances, and portrayed the main spirits - the Big Spirit, Kaltasch ekwa, Otyr, and Mir susne khum, and performed dances dedicated to them. Dances and songs were performed to the accompaniment of a five-stringed musical instrument called a sankvyltap. The culmination of the bear celebration was considered to be a performance with dolls. These could be wooden figures controlled by the hands of a musician playing the sankvyltap. The puppet show carried a tremendous, inviolable significance, and ended with the death of the doll, which was perceived as an atoning sacrifice for killing the bear. During the last century, the Khanty and Mansi held a shortened version of this celebration, which was put on occasionally. It lasted five nights if a male bear was killed while hunting, and four nights if it was a female.

The celebration was held in the hunter’s house, in front the bear skin, with its head laid in the traditional “sacrificial” position. The bear’s head was covered with a headscarf, with mugs made from birch bark or coins placed over the eyes, and the paws were decorated with rings and ribbons. In front of the bear, they put food, wine, and figurines fashioned from dough depicting deer. Then they performed ‘bear songs’, dances, and put on scenes satirically depicting boasters, cowards, thieves, and lazy, sloven people. An important place was occupied by the rites of renunciation, when the hunters, turning to the bear, said that they were not to blame for its death. Those celebrating covered their faces with birch bark masks. The bear meat was eaten on the last night using hands or special chopsticks (no metal objects were used). Evading culpability for eating the meat, the hunters cawed like crows, and purified themselves with water and fire.