LET SPIRIT LEAD THE WAY: Hopi Harvest Festival

Last Saturday we went to the Hopi Harvest Festival. It was amazing! There were dancers from a number of the South West Nations (tribes). Take a deep breath and imagine for a moment, that it is the 1500’s, about 500 years ago. People in this part of the world travel mostly by foot, meaning they walked to where ever they were going. They live in adobe villages with the rest of their tribe and it is a simple life. You have your farmers, your weavers, your hunters… Everybody has their job and you run your life based on the season. The Harvest Festival occurs on the Fall Equinox and it is time to gather with your relatives to celebrate the abundant harvest. Relatives have traveled for days in order to be here for this occasion. (everyone is your relative, including the animals)They bring their dancers and crops to share or trade. You are a peaceful people who have inhabited this land for 500 years.

The Hopi have now been on the same land for 1000 years. Yet, today many continue to live a very simple life, and their entire way of being is based on the 4 seasons, their traditional ways. They have ceremonial dances from February through August, asking the Great Spirit for rain through dancing and they thank Great Spirit for all that they have received through dance, and they dance for many more reasons.

Fast forward to today. The Hopi culture remains very rich in tradition and ceremony, although dates of the ceremonies have been moved to weekends to accommodate the city dwellers. This Harvest Festival was held on 1^st Mesa of the Hopi Land. We witnessed dancers from the Zuni Nation in New Mexico, the Apache Nation from Southern Arizona and the Hualapai Nation in North Western Arizona. (and more dancers) It took us back in time. As I sat there listening to the beat of the drum, watching the dancers moving to the rhythm, it was easy to imagine it was 500 years ago. To feel I was a part of something bigger than me, part of a community, tribe, family… I am a relative of the Hopi, just not in the sense of my American way of life. Going to Hopi Land is like being transported in time. Sure many of them have the modern conveniences, but some of them are traditionalist and still live the old way. Their Spiritual belief is strong and it shows in their way of being and of course in their ceremony. They have prophecy similar to the Maya, Inca and Tibetans, but that’s a whole other story which I am not qualified to write. If you ever have the opportunity to visit indigenous people, DO IT. Be open and prepared to look at the world in a different light, to try and see the way the indigenous people see, to accept that we are all human, and we are all related.

In Hopi Land you are not allowed to take pictures during ceremonies, or of their villages. During the Harvest Festival they change the rules. For the first time on a visit to Hopi I was able to take pictures of the dancers, not the village. In closing, enjoy the pictures of the dancers below and when spirit leads you do something different, give it a chance, be open to new experiences.

In Gratitude,

Linda G