See Reindeer, Warm Up at Arctic Market

J O K K M O K K, Sweden, Jan. 14 -- In the monochrome gloom of the Arcticwinter, the intense blues and reds of Sami ceremonial garb glowlike the promise that summer will return someday.

When Samis, the reindeer-herding indigenous people once known asLapps, converge on Jokkmokk for the annual winter market, the grayskies and white snow seem to recede, becoming just a background forthe finery— sapphire coats stitched with yellow and orange, capstopped with shimmering crimson plumes.

As they lead reindeer through the streets lined with marketstalls, visitors stiffened by 20 degrees-below-zero temperatureslean close, as if to partake of some radiant heat.

Samis have been coming to this town of 3,000, perched just abovethe Arctic Circle, for a market in the first week of February sincethe early 1600s. In 2004, the Feb. 5-7 gathering marks the event's399th year.

Tough People, Mischievous Reindeer

It began under royal order as a way for Sweden's rulers to keepan eye on commerce and ensure that taxes were being paid, and toexpose the pagan Sami to Christian proselytizing. In recentdecades, it's also become an opportunity for visitors to get ataste of Sami life without the rigors of venturing into the frigidforests.

What they find is a life that is harsh but sophisticated. Samicraftwork is marked by its understated elegance — intricatelycarved objects of antler and wood, knives so well-balanced that thehand seems to draw strength from them.

The nightly performances of "jojk" singing also reflect thiscombination of the crude and the elevated. The songs are meant toevoke or identify with something in nature — a bear, a fox, moose —and at first the jojks sound to an outsider as bleak and rough asthe landscape. But listen awhile and the hypnotic, even ecstatic,qualities stealthily take over.