Happy Nightway
Hugh Neeld is a freelance columnist for TylerPaper.com.
Yes! I said “Happy Nightway.” You look surprised, and well you might.
Nightway, the short name of The Navajo Night Chant, is not as well known as the more traditional holidays such as National Honey Month, or Saint Elmo’s Fire Drill. Nightway goes back to around 1000 B.C. when it was first performed by the Indians that lived in the Canyon de Chelly, known today as eastern Arizona. It is celebrated in late fall or early winter for nine days. I stumbled across the Nightway story on the Internet, and thought it would be something to write about. The fact that I did it in November, however, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be celebrated in this month.
Nightway is the most sacred of all Navajo ceremonies. It’s also the most technically difficult and demanding to learn. This is because it involves memorizing literally hundreds of songs, dozens of prayers and several complicated and intricate sand paintings. In spite of this, the demand for Night Chants remains great and as many as 50 ceremonies might be held in a single season.
Just like the Navajo Mountain Chant, the Night Chant is basically a healing ritual. The intention is to either heal those who are sick, and/or to restore order and balance to relationships within the Navajo universe.
My only experience with anything even remotely like this was a Cherokee Indian healing ceremony I attended one time. It’s held every year in Van Zandt County to commemorate the July 16, 1839 battle in which Chief Bowles was slain during the last engagement between the Cherokees and whites in Texas. It, also, included a cleansing ceremony where smoke is blown over herbs which contain healing medicine. It was supposed to bring good luck, happiness, prosperity and good health. The only one of these claims that proved true for me was brief happiness when the Cowboys won a football game.
But, I digress. The Night Chant is led by a trained medicine man 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 in order to scare off sickness and ugliness. Once disorder is gone, then order and balance are restored through song, prayer, sand painting and other aspects of the ceremony.
Young children undergo a tribal initiation before the chant takes place. They are stripped of their clothing and struck with a yucca whip. Young boys are then allowed to see the “Gods” (masked dancers impersonating the gods), when they remove their masks. The girls are not whipped, but touched with ears of corn covered with sprays of spruce.
Rehearsals have been going on at the lodge. On the day of the chant, crowds will gather outside this lodge. But the outdoor area where the actual ceremony takes place is cleared of all spectators. Many fires are also lit to take the chill out of the cool night air. The dancers are led in by the medicine man along a path of meal that has been laid down for them to follow.
The patient looking for a cure emerges from the lodge, sprinkles the gods with meal from his or her basket and gives each one a sacrificial cigarette The medicine man then intones a long prayer for this person, repeating each phrase four times. Then the four gods dance, moving in rhythm back and forth and hooting at the end of every verse to show their approval. The last time I tried hooting to show approval was at an East Texas Symphony performance at the Cowan Center. I was evicted from the auditorium for disorderly conduct.
The success rate of Nightway? I don’t know. I’m not even sure they keep statistics, but I do know this—given the rising cost of prescriptions, Nightway is something I’ll be considering.
A question to ponder:
What do you do when you see an endangered animal eat an endangered plant?
putterhugh@suddenlink.net
Hugh Neeld is a freelance columnist for TylerPaper.com.
Nightway, the short name of The Navajo Night Chant, is not as well known as the more traditional holidays such as National Honey Month, or Saint Elmo’s Fire Drill. Nightway goes back to around 1000 B.C. when it was first performed by the Indians that lived in the Canyon de Chelly, known today as eastern Arizona. It is celebrated in late fall or early winter for nine days. I stumbled across the Nightway story on the Internet, and thought it would be something to write about. The fact that I did it in November, however, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be celebrated in this month.
Nightway is the most sacred of all Navajo ceremonies. It’s also the most technically difficult and demanding to learn. This is because it involves memorizing literally hundreds of songs, dozens of prayers and several complicated and intricate sand paintings. In spite of this, the demand for Night Chants remains great and as many as 50 ceremonies might be held in a single season.
Just like the Navajo Mountain Chant, the Night Chant is basically a healing ritual. The intention is to either heal those who are sick, and/or to restore order and balance to relationships within the Navajo universe.
My only experience with anything even remotely like this was a Cherokee Indian healing ceremony I attended one time. It’s held every year in Van Zandt County to commemorate the July 16, 1839 battle in which Chief Bowles was slain during the last engagement between the Cherokees and whites in Texas. It, also, included a cleansing ceremony where smoke is blown over herbs which contain healing medicine. It was supposed to bring good luck, happiness, prosperity and good health. The only one of these claims that proved true for me was brief happiness when the Cowboys won a football game.
But, I digress. The Night Chant is led by a trained medicine man 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 in order to scare off sickness and ugliness. Once disorder is gone, then order and balance are restored through song, prayer, sand painting and other aspects of the ceremony.
Young children undergo a tribal initiation before the chant takes place. They are stripped of their clothing and struck with a yucca whip. Young boys are then allowed to see the “Gods” (masked dancers impersonating the gods), when they remove their masks. The girls are not whipped, but touched with ears of corn covered with sprays of spruce.
Rehearsals have been going on at the lodge. On the day of the chant, crowds will gather outside this lodge. But the outdoor area where the actual ceremony takes place is cleared of all spectators. Many fires are also lit to take the chill out of the cool night air. The dancers are led in by the medicine man along a path of meal that has been laid down for them to follow.
The patient looking for a cure emerges from the lodge, sprinkles the gods with meal from his or her basket and gives each one a sacrificial cigarette The medicine man then intones a long prayer for this person, repeating each phrase four times. Then the four gods dance, moving in rhythm back and forth and hooting at the end of every verse to show their approval. The last time I tried hooting to show approval was at an East Texas Symphony performance at the Cowan Center. I was evicted from the auditorium for disorderly conduct.
The success rate of Nightway? I don’t know. I’m not even sure they keep statistics, but I do know this—given the rising cost of prescriptions, Nightway is something I’ll be considering.
A question to ponder:
What do you do when you see an endangered animal eat an endangered plant?
putterhugh@suddenlink.net
Hugh Neeld is a freelance columnist for TylerPaper.com.
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