[1][2][3][4][5][6] In the Yup'ik Eskimo shamanism, while the hunter kills the body of the animal, he does not kill the yua (spirit or soul), which resides in the animal's bladder (nakacuk in Yup'ik) and is reincarnated in a new body.
[4] The collected inflated bladders of sea mammals taken by hunters during the previous year are honored.
[7] The celebration of the Bladder Festival marked the opening of the winter ceremonial season.
At the time of the winter solstice, when the sun "sat down" on the horizon, families inflated the bladders of seals killed that year and brought them into the qasgiq.
[3] Yup'ik hunters still hunt seals but villages have not performed the festival for at least 50 years or more.