Ceremonies in Navajo Culture: Ceremony Just in Case
The Navajo culture originated sometime in between the years of 1100-1500 A.D. in the United States southwestern region corner of the Colorado plateau which is also now a part of the four corners. The four corners are essentially four mountains that border the Navajo reservation which is also believed to be sacred. Considering how long this religion has been around there is so much that goes into how this religion functions in today's world. Things such as time, mother earth, and all-around spiritual belief. The “Navajo ceremonies cover many different elements that are all crucial to the overall process”. All of these things play a significant role in how Navajo ceremonies are performed and the different types of ceremonies there are.
WHAT NAVAJOS PRAY TO
The first big thing that Navajo ceremonies revolve around would be the creation story. The creation story holds a great amount of significance because the story involves the holy people who the dine people( The word 'Dine' is from their own language and means 'the people.' ) pray to heal in their ceremonies. The “Holy People -or supernatural beings- who take care of them. Navajo songs are sung in ceremonies to cure the sick or to protect their families, homes, crops, or herds”. On to mother earth which also plays a big role in Navajo ceremonies because the Navajo people believe that everything in the fourth world (also known as the glittering world) holds great spiritual significance. The creation story, holy people, and mother earth all play a part in dining people's traditional ceremonies.
MEDICINE MAN
An important figure to performing the traditional Navajo ceremony would be the medicine man. A medicine man “is a superior being, at once a doctor, a religious leader, and a historian”. The medicine man comes into play when a disorder evolves in a Navajos life, such as an illness, medicine men use herbs, prayers to the holy people, songs, and ceremonies to help cure patients. A qualified medicine man is a unique individual bestowed with supernatural powers to diagnose a person's problem and to heal or cure an illness and restore harmony to the patient. Some ceremonies last several hours, while others may last as long as nine days. The most common Ceremonies can be categorized into four types: Blessing ways, protection way, Lifeway, and Evil Ways.
MOST PERFORMED CEREMONY “BLESSINGWAY”
The first most performed ceremony would be the blessing way ceremony because it is commonly grouped with the lifeway ceremony the only difference being that Blessing way ceremonies are typically used to embrace a new stage of life not to just restore health and wellbeing like the life way ceremony. One type of blessing way ceremony would be babies first laugh which in Navajo is A’wee Chi’deedloh. This ceremony is usually held within four days of the first laugh, “The person who has the good fortune of eliciting that first laugh is then responsible for throwing a party”. Rock salt is given out to the guests. This part of the tradition dates back to when salt was a commodity that was hard to come by. It represents giving in hopes that the baby remains generous with their joy and happiness and shares it with others in their lifetime. A traditional Navajo belief is that the first laugh is a unique moment. Joy is something that is learned and vital to the human experience. In addition, the baby is living in two worlds. A “spirit world” where their soul came from and the physical world they were born into. For the first few months, babies are treated with much fragility and care by family members. When the baby laughs, it’s a sign that they are leaving the “between worlds' 'and entering a new stage of life and transitioning into the physical world “our world”.
SECOND MOST PERFORMED CEREMONY “EVILWAY”
The second most performed ceremony would be the protection way ceremony which is performed to set up a healthy boundary in one’s aura and maintains this shield from outside contaminants and toxins like the maladaptive emotions that do not and cannot exist in the body: hate, envy, greed, jealousy, anger, shame, guilt, fear, etc. The protection way ceremony is closely related to the evil way ceremony because both ceremonies are all about restoring health and ensuring you are protected from all negative misfortunes. The evil way ceremony is used for “divine masculinity that serves as the protector-provider. The protection way ceremony is regularly used for people who are on their way to war. The Enemy Way ceremony, sometimes called the Squaw Dance, is one Navajo ceremony used for soldiers who were in combat, captured, or wounded. Intense preparations are made and, at the appropriate time, the ceremony is conducted. Often it includes family members and others who participate in the prayers, songs, and other parts of the ceremony. These ceremonies help the Navajo war veterans return to a state of balance, or beauty, within the universe. This state of balance is called “Hozho” in the Navajo language.
OVERALL CONCLUSION
In conclusion, every type of ceremony is important in its own way. Like the blessing way ceremony that is used to embrace a new stage of life and to raise them in a state of balance in other words “Hozho” even the ceremony that is closely related to the blessing way ceremony serves a specific purpose. The lifeway ceremony is specifically used to celebrate the small things in life such as getting married and assure that you're on the right path in life. Along with the protection way ceremony which is used to rid of any negative things that could cause you harm. With the last type of ceremony the evil way ceremony which is performed to keep you from harm's way like the protection way ceremony but rids a certain type of negativity. But these ceremonies all wouldn’t be possible without the medicine man or the creation story, holy people, and mother earth. All ceremonies have their own purpose “The primary focus of the ceremonies of the Native American Navajo tribe is to bring balance by re-establishing harmony or hozho”.
