Navajo Culture - The Navajo are people very geared toward family life and events that surround their lifestyle. Many games and traditions have emerged from their love of the land and their attachment to it.
Long winter nights and the seclusion of the reservation has brought about most of the customs and activities used by the People to entertain and amuse themselves.
Ceremonies
The Navaho life is particularly rich in ceremony and ritual, second only to some of the Pueblo groups.Note is made of nine of their great nine-day ceremonies for the treatment of ills, mental and physical.
There are also many less important ceremonies occupying four days, two days, and one day in their performance.
In these ceremonies many dry-paintings, or "sand altars," are made, depicting the characters and incidents of myths.
Almost every act of their life—the building of the hogán, the planting of crops, etc.—is ceremonial in nature, each being attended with songs and prayers.
Navajo men at Yebichai sweat
The Navaho life is particularly rich in ceremony and ritual, second only to some of the Pueblo groups. Note is made of nine of their great nine-day ceremonies for the treatment of ills, mental and physical.
There are also many less important ceremonies occupying four days, two days, and one day in their performance. In these ceremonies many dry-paintings, or "sand altars," are made, depicting the characters and incidents of myths.
Almost every act of their life—the building of the hogán, the planting of crops, etc.—is ceremonial in nature, each being attended with songs and prayers.