It is a simple affair - a forest clearing where small clusters of people partake of the traditional wheat gruel, beer, and bread, or just relax on benches. The main action is in the centre, where the bird is prepared for the blackened and steaming cauldrons.

Nearby, in a little makeshift hut lit by candles, offerings are made to the gods. When the goose is finally ready, it is passed round to the participants, who eat first from the liver and then from the main body of the bird. So goes a typical family sacrifice in the sacred grove at Novy Taryal, in the Republic of Mari El, just west of Tatarstan. Distant relatives of the Finns and Hungarians, the Mari people are one of several tribes who remained on the Vilga when others moved west to settle in Europe proper. Eking out a modest existence on the area's sparse soil for centuries, they remain one of the Russian Federation's poorest and most rural nations.