Blessing Way
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- For the novel, see The Blessing Way.
The Blessing Way is one half of the Navajo song ceremonial complexes, the other half being the Enemy Way. The rites and prayers in the Blessing Way are concerned with healing, creation, harmony and peace. The song cycles recount the elaborate Navajo mythology related to the rites contained within the Blessing Way.
[edit] Rite of passage
Perhaps the most important of all these rituals is the Kinaaldá ceremony, in which a young girl makes the transition to womanhood upon her menarche. During the course of the ceremony, the girl enacts the part of Changing Woman, the deity responsible for fertility entering the world.
Ceremonies regarding expectant mothers are also part of the Blessing Way. However, these are not to be confused with some ceremonies held by other cultures for expectant mothers, which may also be called Blessing Way ceremonies regardless of their actual connection with the Blessing Way.
[edit] A variation on the American tradition of a baby shower
A Blessing Way can also indicate a variation on the standard baby shower in which a gathering is held before the birth of a baby to provide support and encouragement to the expectant mother. This form of Blessing Way shares no cultural connection to the Navajo tradition, and shares only the name.
One form that a Blessing Way can take is common in coastal northern California is as a non-consumerist adaptation of the more traditional baby shower in which close friends and family, sometimes all women, and sometimes both men and women, gather to show support, coordinate postnatal meal plans, sing, and bless the mother. Often a ball of yarn is passed around the circle with each person present wrapping the yarn around a wrist (or ankle if having yarn around their wrist would interfere in their lives, i.e. if they work as a nurse) to symbolize being tied together as a community in support of the mother. When the circle is disbanded the yarn is broken and participants tie the yarn onto themselves as a bracelet or anklet, and it is worn until after the baby is born.
