What did the Navajos have to do in the womanhood ceremony?

Answer 1

The Kinaaldá is a four day ceremony. They are still held. On the first morning her mother combs her hair with a traditional grass cob in the family hogan facing the door in the east and ties it in a simple pony tail with buckskin. She sings her first prayer (about 30 minutes) . She puts on traditional ceremonial clothing, a dress made of a Navajo rug sewn at the sides with a hole for the head. She puts on jewelery of turquoise and white shell and other gems. Also, moccasins and leggings. She then has her first run. She runs as far as she can to the east and then runs back to the hogan. She will do this three times a day (dawn, noon, sunset) for three days. She can only eat things made of corn and not salt for the four days. The first night of the ceremony, she will be has to sit straight up with her legs straight out in front of her for the entire night '. While she sits this way, men in her family will sing more prayers. They will sing throughout the night and into the dawn while the young woman remains seated.

Next day she starts preparing the 'alkaan which is a large cornmeal cake baked under ground. She has to grind all the corn into meal over the first two days. She is given special stirring sticks from her mother. She digs a hole four feet across and one foot deep for the cake. Men make the fire. When the batter is ready the hole is lined with corn husks and the batter is put in and covered with husks and it is cooked over night. The cake is cut from the east in circular direction. Everyone there gets little bit of the cake. The central parts of the cake are given to the most respectable members of the tribe like the girl's grandmother and the medicine man who actually organizes the Kinaalda.

Each day the women mold her body symbolically with a motion like kneading clay so she will grow tall, thin and attractive. She is turn does this to younger children.

The ceremony is lead by a hataałii ( singer, medicine man). The first kinaalda was for Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé) marking the bringing of fertility back into the world. Most of the stories and prayers have to do with that and with identifying with her.

Sunset on the third night marks a new stage in the ceremony, characterized by all-night singing and symbolic praying with corn pollen. The fourth day of the ceremony is interspersed with many more traditional Navajo songs. The girl's hair and jewelry are washed with yucca root, she runs to the East once again at sunrise, and the cake is distributed to all those that have come to perform. Between nearly every segment of the ceremony, songs are performed. In several cases, the girl leaves for a period of time as this happens. Finally, the ceremony concludes with the combing of her hair, the painting of her body with white clay, and the molding of her body outside the hogan.