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Navajo religion ceremonies - page 1 of 3

Many of the Dine ceremonies, including the Yebeichai (Night chantway), Enemy Way (Squaw Dance) and Fire Dance (Mountain chantway), ceremonies, last several days and require them to build special structures away from their homes. The complex and lengthy rituals include, among many, the various three-day sings, five-day sings, and the nine-day sings. These ceremonies require the use of open areas and land. The Yebichai, Ni dah and Fire Dance lasts for nearly two weeks.

Learning how to live means praying to and giving thanks for what gives life: Mother Earth, the Sun, Fire and Air. Each has gods or Holy People dwelling within. There are prayers and offerings at special places; springs, shrines, flat areas, young trees, and at home, that must be learned and passed on. All of the animals have sacred songs and prayers and each has a name used in ceremonies.

The Navajo employ many ceremonies for different needs. Most of these are related to healing, but ceremonies are also used to bless people, places, and objects, or to pray for rain or plentiful harvests. Opinions differ about the number of ceremonies currently being used and those which were in existence in earlier times. However, there is general agreement with the conservative estimate that the Navajo possess at least thirty different ceremonies.

In the Yeibichai ceremony a ceremonial hogan is needed, a ramada or cooking shack, a Yei house (four wooden posts covered with green cedar tree branches), an herb rack and a sweat lodge. The Dine may travel up to 20 miles to collect needed ceremonial herbs. The ceremony lasts for 13 days (9 days followed by 4 days of reflection after the ceremony). Sacred objects are then left in the Yei house which is left standing until it decays by natural forces. Herbs are gathered in special ways and the Medicine person knows where they are located. The plant is called by its Dine name and an offering is made to the Holy Ones. The Holy Ones are told why the plant is being taken and who the plant is for.

One of the most central and fundamental Dine ceremonies is Blessingway. With the Blessingway, as with all Dine ceremonies, "marking" or offerings of white corn meal and corn pollen are made before the ceremony begins. The purpose of the ceremony is to establish a state of balance or harmony. Blessingway songs are sung at the end of every ceremony. Blessingway is also the core of the initiation of young girls into womanhood, and new homes are blessed with songs from the ceremony. Its legends tell of the events after the Emergence, the construction of the hogan, and the sacred geography of the Dine; hence, Blessingway is perhaps the most important religious facet of traditional Dine identity. These ceremonies can only be performed in the families' hogans and at other sacred places known to the Dine families. The Navajo hogan is a physical embodiment of the Blessingway song ritual, which recounts the perfect harmony incorporated in the creation of the world. Built in the form of a rough circle, the hogan embodies the essence of Navajo spirituality and opens its door to the east to greet the rising sun. The Blessingway song-ceremony, which begins with the creation story and recounts how first holy people were given instructions on how to build the original hogan, is a song of healing and restorative powers. To have any therapeutic effect it must be conducted within a traditional and ritually consecrated hogan.

• Navajo Creation
• Navajo ceremonies
• Navajo medicine men
• Navajo ceremonial sandpaintings
• Navajo sacred lands

Navajo Dine religion ceremonies - page 2

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