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Like the NAVAJO MOUNTAIN CHANT, the Night Chant is basically a healing ritual, designed both to cure people who are sick and to restore the order and balance of human relationships within the Navajo universe.
What is a Navajo chant?
Navajo Holyway chants are two, five, or nine nights in length (a “night” being counted from one sunset to the next). They consist of component ceremonies strung together in a specified order. Many chants include a bath, a sandpainting ritual, a sweat and emetic ceremony, and an all-‐night sing on the last night.
What is a Nightway ceremony?
The Night Way (Yébîchai in Navajo) is a healing ceremony that lasts for nine days and nights and is performed only in the winter months. The ritual, perhaps the most complex in the Navajo repertoire of healing chants, includes praying, sacred dancing, pollen blessing, and sandpainting.
What is the legend on which the Night Chant is based?
The Dine (Navajo) consider the Kieje Hatal (Night Chant) one of the most important chants. It is based on this legend. Long, long ago, three brothers lived among their people, who are known as the Dine or Dinneh, meaning “people.” The oldest brother was rich. The second was a wayward, roving gambler.
What is the Enemy Way ceremony?
The Enemy Way Ceremony, sometimes called the Squaw Dance, is one Navajo ceremony used for soldiers who were in combat, captured, or wounded. 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.
What is Enemy Way?
The Enemy Way Ceremony, sometimes called the Squaw Dance, is one Navajo ceremony used for soldiers who were in combat, captured, or wounded. Often it includes family members and others who participate in the prayers, songs, and other parts of the ceremony.
What does Hozho Naasha mean?
Walking in Beauty
1/4th: “Walking in Beauty”: Native American Concepts: “hozho naasha” To “walk in beauty” means to walk in harmony with all living things. It’s being that state of awareness where you feel connected to everything around you.
What does Naasha mean in Navajo?
walk in beauty
“Hozho Naasha” means “walk in beauty” for the Dine or Navajo.
The Enemy Way Ceremony, sometimes called the Squaw Dance, is one Navajo ceremony used for soldiers who were in combat, captured, or wounded. The painting you see on the screen is by Carl Gorman, and it shows a scene from the Navajo Enemy Way Ceremony.
Why was the Night Chant important to the Navajo?
The Indians living in Canyon de Chelly performed the night chant. It is also considered as the sacred of the Navajo ceremonies and believed to be the most hard to learn. It mainly involves memorization of prayers, complicated designs and songs. Just like the mountain chant, this is mainly considered to be a healing ritual.
What was the Night Chant in Canyon de Chelly?
The Indians living in Canyon de Chelly performed the night chant. It is also considered as the sacred of the Navajo ceremonies and believed to be the most hard to learn. It mainly involves memorization of prayers, complicated designs and songs.
When did the Night Chant start in Arizona?
Nine days in late fall or early winter. The nine-night ceremony known as the Night Chant or the Nightway (Yei Bei Chei) is believed to date from around 1000 b.c.e., when it was first performed by the Indians who lived in Canyon de Chelly (now eastern Arizona).
Who is the leader of the Night Chant?
The Night Chant is lead by a trained Medicine Man (doctor-priest) who has had a long apprenticeship and learned the intricate and detailed practices that are essential to the chant. The ceremony uses techniques that shock and arose in order to scare off sicknesses and ugliness.