Description
The Sámi people, who are the indigenous people in the area of Finnish Lapland, central Sweden, central Norway and the Russian Kola Peninsula, consider several places sacred and significant. These places are known as “seidas” and they have been part of the Sámi traditional religion and culture for centuries. The connection / intercourse with seida can be considered relatively equal and reciprocal. A person respected the seida and sacrificed to it – in turn, seida was supposed to give success in livelihood. A non-functioning bad seida could be abandoned and a person who misbehaves towards a seida could get sick or face bad luck.
Seida rocks have usually been special rock formations or large natural stones that clearly stand out from the rest of the environment. Wood seidas were made by pruning unusual trees, by placing a wooden plank or stump in a suitable position and sometimes even by carving human figures into wood. Fells, stone hills and gorges have also been seidas.
Each Sámi village once had its own seida and sacrifice places next to the seida. After the conversion to Christianity in the 17th-18th centuries, seidas began to fall out of use. According to the church, the Sámi’s seidas and gods were idolatry and that is why many seidas were destroyed.
Taatsi Seida is one of the most renowned seidas in Sápmi, the land of the Sámi people. It is a ten-meter-high stone slab formed by nature, tapering upwards, and is located in Kittilä on the shore of Lake Taatsinjärvi. Near the seida rock, there is a vertical rock formation known as Taatsinkirkko, which, in addition to sacrifices, has been used as a hunting ground for deer. It has been found in the area stone age settlements and the ancient relic area is a nationally significant built cultural heritage site.
In the area, there are e.g. stone age settlements and therefore it belongs to Nationally significant archaeological sites. The area is a conservation forest protected by the decision of Metsähallitus.
The preservation of the Sámi culture and cultural heritage related to places (like seidas) is closely related to the preservation of the old-growth forests of Upper Lapland. The forests of the Sámi residential areas are Europe’s last natural forests where trees have never been felled. Some of it is protected, but a lot is still not protected.
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The photo was taken by Markku Nykänen in the summer of 2022.
